Inside the white-brick hallways of the Flathead County Detention Center, Jail Commander Jen Root walked up to a steel door with a small window and pointed inside.
"She's been here almost a year, just laying on her bed," she said.
“So, they just deteriorate within our facility,” Root said of her and other inmates with mental health conditions. Now, state health officials are asking lawmakers to change criminal commitment laws so the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has a say before a judge orders a patient committed to the Montana State Hospital or another state-run facility.
In the meantime, patients are funneled to the state hospital as it's the only option for many inmates who need mental health care. In an interview with KFF Health News and Montana Public Radio, Kalispell District Court Judge Amy Eddy did not address the health department's proposal to give the state a say on involuntary commitments. But she noted that the state hospital is currently the only facility in the state that can take patients charged with crimes and involuntarily medicate them.
Keenan requested that another committee, the Law and Justice Interim Committee, also study the commitment laws. But Keenan did not request any specific changes, and that committee had not responded to his letter as of Aug. 30. While additional mental health services are needed, the state also needs to work on improving care at the state hospital for the patients it does serve, said Eddy, the Kalispell judge.
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