(Dec. 22, 2016) When Pennsylvania father Keith Kutz received a call earlier this month informing him that his severely mentally ill son, Travis, was being transferred from prison to Norristown State Hospital, he had mixed feelings.
"When I got the call and I heard it was Norristown, it hit me hard," said Kutz. "It was a major relief when they told me. I just broke down."
While Kutz is overjoyed that his son is finally getting the treatment he needs, the question remains: why did Travis have to languish behind bars for 18 months before a psychiatric bed became available? (“After 18 months in jail, mentally ill man finally gets court-ordered treatment,” the Morning Call, Dec. 12).
The reason is because the waitlist for a psych bed in one of Pennsylvania’s two state hospitals for inmates who have been declared incompetent to stand trial are long; possibly the longest in the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which last year sued the state over excessive wait times.
The problem is the two hospitals face logjams, as demand far outpaces the number of beds available, and the state has been unwilling to add additional beds. That’s how the most severely ill, like Travis and hundreds of others in Pennsylvania, end up stuck waiting for treatment.
Starving for Treatment
24-year-old Travis was arrested in May 2015 and charged with breaking into his father’s home to “steal” food. At the time, he was homeless and delusional and refused mental health treatment on his own, according to Keith Kutz. He only pressed charges out of desperation; he believed it was the only way to get his son into treatment.
But he had no idea that Travis would sit in Northampton County Prison for 18 months.
"It took too long to get him there," said Keith Kutz, who worries prison may have damaged his son. "I just hope him sitting there all that time didn't make him worse."
Travis’ public defender, Syzane Arifaj said now that Travis has been transferred to a hospital setting, he may be able to get on the right medications and be persuaded to stay on them. But whatever happens "can't be worse, honestly" than having him remain in prison, Arifaj said.
Last January, Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services reached a settlement on the ACLU's federal civil rights lawsuit. In it, they agreed to invest more resources in the mental health system with a focus on reducing wait times for psych beds.
But the agreement didn't contain any increase in the actual number of beds in either of the two state hospitals, which state officials maintained is unnecessary despite growing waiting lists.
The Treatment Advocacy Center blogged on the Kutz family this past October. As we noted then, Pennsylvania has just 1.8 forensic beds per 100,000 population and just 8.6 civil beds ― well below the minimally acceptable number, according to our 2016 report on the trends and consequences of eliminating state psychiatric beds.
We are happy to hear that progress has been made and that Travis will finally be receiving the care he deserves.
But 18 months is way too long for someone with a severe illness to wait for medical treatment. It’s time Pennsylvania recognizes this and offers aBedInstead in an appropriate time frame.
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