By Clayton Murphy | UM Legislative News Service and Jenn Rowell | The Electric
HELENA — Rep. James Reavis, D-Billings, said the 14th Amendment requires “fitness to proceed” — meaning those charged with a crime must be able to understand what they are being accused of.
Reavis is sponsoring House Bill 236 in an effort to protect prisoners’ constitutional rights to due process by adding enhanced access to psychological care in detention centers to state law.
Reavis said current law only includes psychological screening at one in-person facility in the state.
“And that was creating a really big backlog,” Reavis said. “So what the department started doing a couple of years ago that’s been really helpful is they’ve started opening up the process a little bit.”
Some facilities have started bringing in outside psychiatric care, a process that has helped the backlog but is not yet codified in state law. The bill would also include online ”telehealth” consultations.
Senator and Judiciary Committee Chairman Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County, had several questions at a Senate hearing on March 17 about how the bill would work.
“ The biggest issue has been trying to get enough psychiatrists on the list in most jurisdictions,” Usher said. “The question is, why do we need this bill if we’re already doing this through rule?”
Reavis said HB 236 would set these practices in stone and create sideboards for any future legislation.
The bill drew no opposition during the March 17 hearing and it passed the House on wide margins last month.
Cascade County Josh Racki told The Electric this was already allowable under state law for local prosecutors to bring in local providers and his office does so frequently.
He said that the bill wouldn’t likely have any impact on the backlog for fitness to proceed evaluations in Cascade County.
Racki said the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services had some years ago created a program that included a list of approved providers who could conduct the mental health assessments for criminal proceedings and the state would cover the cost. The problem, he said, is that many providers didn’t want to participate since the state didn’t pay enough to cover provider’s expenses.
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Racki said his office has brought providers to Cascade County from places like Missoula at the county’s cost, which eats quickly into his experts budget.
The backlog for fitness to proceed evaluations and treatments to restore defendants to fitness for criminal cases has been a significant issue in Cascade for several years.
A recent high profile case highlighting the issue has been that of Jeremiah Gideon, who in October, ran over a credit union employee with a vehicle and is facing an attempted deliberate homicide charge, as well as a felony charge for making threats to investigators in that case.
Gideon had been civilly committed to the Montana State Hospital last summer for mental health treatment as a result of a previous criminal case against him.
The state hospital released Gideon and within a few weeks, had been picked up on an assault charge, then the attempted deliberate homicide charge.
In that case, Gideon has been on a waiting list for a mental health evaluation and his defense attorney argued the charges had to be dismissed since the state couldn’t meet the statutory deadlines to determine fitness for criminal proceedings.
In February, Racki’s office was able to retain a Missoula-based psychologist to evaluate Gideon and petitioned to civilly commit Gideon to the state hospital.
On Feb. 12, Gideon, through a friend and his attorney, agreed to the commitment and he was transported to the state hospital on Feb. 21.
His criminal case is pending while he is treated.
In January, a district court judge dismissed a criminal charge against Gregory LaPlant due to the backlog at the Montana State Hospital.
In that case, the Cascade County Attorney’s Office and DPHHS argued the backlog issues to the Montana Supreme Court.
LaPlant had other pending criminal cases and as of March 17 was back in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on a Municipal Court hold since while in the hospital he had exposed himself to a nurse, according to the county attorney’s office.
Clayton Murphy is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. Murphy can be reached at clayton.murphy@umconnect.umt.edu.
