The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, District Court and mental health providers are launching a new local process for evaluating defendants’ mental competency and offering outpatient treatment for ...

When a defense counsel, prosecutor, or judge has reason to question whether a defendant can rationally assist in their own defense, the court may order a competency evaluation, the most common ...

For two years, KXAN investigators have explored a growing backlog of people in Texas jails who need mental competency restoration. While an advisory committee has largely focused on finding state ...

In the Vermont House Judiciary section of the legislative website, two bills dealing with competency are listed. H.251 was ...

Senate Bill 1323 took effect in January. Judges must now decide if it's "in the interest of justice" for certain defendants to be restored to competency or placed in an alternative program. Fewer ...

Jun. 30—Every year, hundreds of people across New York who have been accused of crimes are sent to state-run mental hospitals to be treated for severe disabilities or mental illnesses that prevent ...

A federal judge has deemed unconstitutional Washington’s practice of holding mentally ill people in jails while they await competency evaluations and treatment and during a trial that starts Monday, ...

What is the process for determining an individual’s competency to stand trial? First, a defense attorney must request a competency evaluation through the Chatham County Mental Health Court by ...

Feb. 28—Shellie Whitmore has yet to be in a courtroom with the man accused of stabbing her father to death on a walking path in Manchester more than two years ago. The next chance to change that ...

PRACTICES AND STANDARDS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS AND MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES SAY THE NEED FOR REFORM IS URGENT. I’VE BEEN WORKING, DOING COMPETENCY EVALUATIONS FOR EIGHT AND A HALF, ALMOST NINE YEARS NOW, ...