Judge holds Oregon Health Authority in contempt for failure to promptly
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PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge found the Oregon Health Authority
in contempt of court on Friday, determining that it has failed to
follow court orders requiring it to promptly admit mentally ill
defendants to the state psychiatric hospital.
The ruling means that fines will soon start racking up, and
plaintiffs in the case hope that it will force Oregon to make major
changes to its mental health system. Criminal defendants with
mental health needs are otherwise made to wait in jails, sometimes
for weeks at a time, before being admitted to the Oregon State
Hospital.
"Today’s ruling is a major win for our clients whose Constitutional
rights have been violated while they suffer in jail instead of
receiving the court-ordered mental health restoration services they
need,” said Jake Cornett, executive director and CEO of plaintiff
Disability Rights Oregon. “We’re hopeful swift implementation of
the monetary sanctions and remedial measures will kickstart real
solutions to fix Oregon’s broken mental health system.”
RELATED: Oregon State Hospital has new acting superintendent after
patient's death, Kotek's office says
The order from U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson mentions a near-
identical case in Washington, where a contempt of court designation
and its resulting fines pushed the state to significantly improve
its capacity to treat people with severe mental illness.
"Ultimately, defendants' stipulation to the continued existence of constitutional violations, as well as the overall failure of less-
intrusive measures to remedy those violations, indicate that the
implementation of monetary sanctions and remedial measures is
necessary to bring the State back into compliance with the Court's
Permanent Injunction," Judge Nelson wrote in the order.
"The monetary sanctions imposed should be (and here are) reasonably
tailored, and in determining the number of monetary sanctions to
impose the Court has considered the character and magnitude of the
harms threatened by defendants' continued noncompliance and the
probable effectiveness of any such sanction," she continued.
This is a developing story and may be updated with more details as
they emerge.
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