Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial: Use of State Hospitals, Community-Based, and Jail-Based Approaches

One of the 15 new State Mental Health Profiles reports released by NRI focuses on evaluation of competency to stand trial. The State Mental Health Agency (SMHA) in 35 states directly provides or funds competency to stand trial (CST) evaluations for adult criminal cases. Thirty states have a statutory or court mandated timeline for completing adult CST evaluations. The average number of days required to complete these CST evaluations across 28 states is 50 days (median of 30 days), ranging from a low of three days to a high of 180 days. A majority of CST evaluations conducted by (or on contract with) the SMHA for adults were completed on an outpatient basis in jails (39%) and community-based settings (31%).

This new NRI state Profiles “Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial: Use of State Hospitals, Community-Based, and Jail-Based approaches” report is available at www.nri-inc.org/profiles. This report is one of 15 new Profiles report available to the public. SMHA staff have exclusive access to additional state-by-state information that are summarized in the public reports. For more information about the State Profiles system, please e-mail [email protected].