MD Health Department sued for ‘indefinite detention’ of people incompetent to stand trial

The Maryland Department of Health has repeatedly failed to place disabled people deemed incompetent to stand trial in treatment facilities, forcing them to stay in jail for months, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Disability Rights Maryland, a federally-funded organization that seeks to protect the rights of people with disabilities, on Thursday sued MDH and Health Secretary Laura Herrera Scott in federal court for violations of detainees’ civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The complaint alleges the department is failing to follow a law requiring it to send people to treatment facilities within 10 days of a court order finding them both incompetent and a potential danger to themselves or others.

Disability Rights Maryland says as many as 225 disabled people deemed incompetent and dangerous “have been detained and are currently languishing in jails — some for weeks to months at a time,” the complaint begins.

“Notwithstanding its unambiguously clear statutory obligation to do so, the Maryland Department of Health has continuously failed to commit these individuals to an appropriate health care facility for purposes of treatment, as ordered by Maryland courts.”

The complaint provides several examples of people whose mental illnesses or other disabilities became more severe while they were incarcerated with no plan to be released and no treatment behind bars.

It follows years of attention on the issue without progress.

A 2017 decision by the body now known as the Maryland Supreme Court said care must not be unreasonably delayed, although it didn’t specify a time frame. A law the following year created a 10-day deadline. According to a report last month by The Washington Post, judges fined MDH $1.5 million over the past year for failure to obtain adequate, unrestrictive treatment within that time.

“We’ve been trying to work with the department on these issues,” said Luciene Parsley, a lawyer for Disability Rights Maryland. “It doesn’t seem to be getting better, and we’re continuing to see people being harmed.”

Parsley said there isn’t enough space available in state psychiatric hospitals, in large part because many patients remain committed even though they’re ready to be discharged.

MDH spokesman Chase Cook said the department had not yet been served.

“The State of Maryland is committed to the safety of all individuals under our care,” Cook said in an email. “Allegations of neglect are taken seriously and investigated to the fullest extent possible, including the involvement of independent oversight, as needed.”

The complaint asks for declaratory and injunctive relief, bringing five causes of action against Scott in her official capacity and one against the department. It alleges violations of the 14th Amendment, the Maryland Declaration of Rights, the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Judges can order MDH to examine people for potential incompetence to stand trial and, if they’re deemed incompetent, whether they might pose danger to themselves “or the person or property of another if released.” If the judge deems them incompetent, MDH must commit the person to a treatment facility.

The complaint states the person “must remain there until the court determines that he or she is either no longer (incompetent to stand trial), no longer a danger to him or herself or others, or that there is no substantial likelihood that he or she will be restored to competency in the foreseeable future.”

“While held in jail, these defendants endure a functionally indefinite detention, as though the (2018 laws) were never enacted,” the complaint states.

“They have no access to treatment plans or resources that might aid them in seeking to regain competency or become less dangerous, and no means by which to demonstrate such recovery to the courts even if they were receiving treatment rather than just being warehoused.”

The complaint was filed by Parsley along with Washington, D.C. lawyers Theodore Howard of Wiley Rein and Ryan Downer of Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs.