In Texas, the Waitlist for a Bed at a State Mental Hospital Hits an All-Time High
During her years as a Burnet County criminal magistrate judge, Roxanne Nelson was at the jail every Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. She saw how county jails dealt with people with mental illnesses accused of committing crimes.
"When I started in March 2010, if I couldn't get someone into a bed within 21 days, I was upset. Because I thought 21 days is a long time for somebody to stay in a county jail with a mental illness," she said.
Nelson left her judgeship in 2016. She now serves on the state's Judicial Commission on Mental Health (JCMH), a group of current and former judicial and law enforcement officials, psychiatric experts and policy experts from across the state.
Her hopes for the people with mental illness waiting in county jails for a state hospital bed have since grown dim. "I thought 21 days was terribly long time for somebody to be stuck in our county jails," Nelson said. "Now, if someone told me they could get someone a bed in 21 days, I'd be thanking the lord."
Read more: https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/in-texas-the-waitlist-for-a-bed-at-a-state-mental-hospital-hits-an-all-time-high-12636706
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