From the intro to an in-depth story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Shannon Harps, a young Sierra Club worker, (pictured) devoted her life to improving her community before she was killed last New Year's Eve. But her death may spur major mental health system reforms that could result in improved public safety, better care for the severely ill and tighter control over dangerous offenders.
A task force convened by the King County Prosecutor's Office and state Department of Corrections has completed a nearly yearlong investigation into the mental health and criminal justice systems that let James Williams roam the streets homeless and hallucinating in the hours before he allegedly chose Harps at random and stabbed her with a kitchen knife.
Williams, a severely mentally ill man with a long history of violence, is now facing a murder charge.
The 160-page report found glaring examples of poor communication, a critical shortage of hospital beds and commitment laws that don't adequately address the complex needs of people who become enmeshed in both the legal and mental health systems after committing violent crimes.On Friday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg will present 64 wide-ranging "concepts for reform" to the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee.
The report found communication barriers resulting in a number of Catch-22s:
- Prosecutors working in the same office and handling the same person for different reasons -- one for a criminal charge, the other for involuntary commitment proceedings -- can't share information.
- The history of violence of someone being evaluated by a mental health professional for potential involuntary commitment can be found only by looking at their criminal records, but the mental health professional making the commitment decision doesn't have either the authority or technological capability to check criminal histories.
- Outpatient mental health agencies serving those on involuntary treatment orders and who want to the treatment time extended, can't -- or don't -- share mental health records with the court that can make the extension decision for fear of violating patient privacy.
- Police can't serve no-contact orders on patients being involuntarily held for evaluation and treatment of their mental state unless the patient agrees to be served.
- Emergency room staff have no direct way to know whether a patient they are seeing for an acute mental health problem is under court supervision or has a history of violence.
"The criminal court system ought to know if someone has been found dangerous or gravely disabled (by a civil commitment court), and I would think, the mental health community would want to know if someone had been charged with a violent crime," Satterberg said. "We don't share that information with each other very well."
Lack of communication also compromises quality of care, said Dr. Richard Veith, chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
