SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The San Antonio Express-News reports nearly 600 patients discharged from the San Antonio State Hospital have been dropped off at the downtown Greyhound bus station since January 2008.
One of them -- Raquel Padilla -- was found dead three days later in a concrete ditch -- having never gotten on that bus back to Del Rio.
The 54-year-old suffered from schizophrenia and mild retardation but was in the care of the state hospital for the seriously mentally ill until workers decided to send her home by dropping her off at the bus station.
Her brother Juan Padilla says she wasn't capable of taking care of herself, especially in the big city.
The San Antonio State Hospital superintendent, Bob Arizpe, said employees were following procedure when they dropped Padilla off, and a staff member saw her standing in line for the bus on Dec. 20.
Other state mental hospitals also drop patients at bus stations in comparable numbers says Emily Palmer -- a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
But no exact figures were available.
The story is available here.
Showing posts with label hospitalization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospitalization. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
Friday, July 18, 2008
Texas Mother to Remain in State Mental Hospital
Below is an update on the case of Deanna Laney, from the Tyler Morning Telegraph ("Woman Who Stoned Children to Death Will Remain in Mental Facility," July 8, 2008). Ms. Laney was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of her children. She has spent the last four years in state mental hospitals.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure "prohibits the court and attorneys from informing a juror or prospective juror of the consequences to the defendant if a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is returned. The purpose of this provision is to prevent the jurors, if possible, from being influenced by the consequences of their decision to the defendant. It has been held that this provision does not deny fundamental fairnessto the defendant." (Texas Criminal Procedure and the Offender with Mental Illness: An Analysis and Guide, pp. 156-157).
Here's the article in full:
"Deanna Laney — who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after she stoned her young sons to death in 2003 — will remain in a mental facility for another year, a state district judge decided Monday.
A closed-door civil commitment hearing was held in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent’s court, as it has been each year since Ms. Laney’s April 2004 capital murder trial.
After the hearing, defense attorney F.R. “Buck” Files Jr. said Judge Kent maintained the same order as she did last year.
When Ms. Laney was acquitted by a Smith County jury in April 2004, Judge Kent ordered Ms. Laney be placed in a maximum-security inpatient treatment facility. Since then, Judge Kent has presided over private hearings each year and determined that Ms. Laney should remain at an inpatient facility.
Last year, after attorneys discovered that Ms. Laney had been transferred from Vernon State Hospital to the Kerrville State Hospital and was being allowed unsupervised furloughs by doctors, Judge Kent put a stop to it at the request of prosecutors. Ms. Laney’s defense attorneys appealed her decision, but the 12th Court of Appeals ruled in April 2007 that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation could not grant Ms. Laney passes to leave the facility with her parents to go shopping and dining in the Hill Country.
In June 2004, Vernon State Hospital transferred Ms. Laney from its maximum-security facility to Kerrville State Hospital, a non-secure impatient facility, court documents state.
Between August and December 2005, Ms. Laney’s treatment team granted her brief passes off the hospital campus in Kerrville.
THE MURDERS
A jury found Ms. Laney, a 43-year-old housewife who home-schooled her children, not guilty by reason of insanity for stoning her sons to death on Mother’s Day weekend in 2003.
Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6, were found dead in the front yard of the family’s New Chapel Hill home, and then-14-month-old Aaron was found seriously injured in his crib.
Ms. Laney’s attorneys admitted during the trial that she had stoned her children, but contended that she was insane and did not know that what she was doing was wrong. Ms. Laney told authorities God told her to kill her children.
Under Texas law, people are found legally insane if, at the time of an offense, they did not know their conduct was wrong because of some mental illness or defect.
Ms. Laney was defended in trial by attorneys Files, Tonda Curry and LaJuanda Lacy, while Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, former First Assistant DA Brett Harrison and current First Assistant DA April Sikes prosecuted the case.
Judge Kent issued a restrictive and protective order, limiting what attorneys can say about the case."
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure "prohibits the court and attorneys from informing a juror or prospective juror of the consequences to the defendant if a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is returned. The purpose of this provision is to prevent the jurors, if possible, from being influenced by the consequences of their decision to the defendant. It has been held that this provision does not deny fundamental fairnessto the defendant." (Texas Criminal Procedure and the Offender with Mental Illness: An Analysis and Guide, pp. 156-157).
Here's the article in full:
"Deanna Laney — who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after she stoned her young sons to death in 2003 — will remain in a mental facility for another year, a state district judge decided Monday.
A closed-door civil commitment hearing was held in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent’s court, as it has been each year since Ms. Laney’s April 2004 capital murder trial.
After the hearing, defense attorney F.R. “Buck” Files Jr. said Judge Kent maintained the same order as she did last year.
When Ms. Laney was acquitted by a Smith County jury in April 2004, Judge Kent ordered Ms. Laney be placed in a maximum-security inpatient treatment facility. Since then, Judge Kent has presided over private hearings each year and determined that Ms. Laney should remain at an inpatient facility.
Last year, after attorneys discovered that Ms. Laney had been transferred from Vernon State Hospital to the Kerrville State Hospital and was being allowed unsupervised furloughs by doctors, Judge Kent put a stop to it at the request of prosecutors. Ms. Laney’s defense attorneys appealed her decision, but the 12th Court of Appeals ruled in April 2007 that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation could not grant Ms. Laney passes to leave the facility with her parents to go shopping and dining in the Hill Country.
In June 2004, Vernon State Hospital transferred Ms. Laney from its maximum-security facility to Kerrville State Hospital, a non-secure impatient facility, court documents state.
Between August and December 2005, Ms. Laney’s treatment team granted her brief passes off the hospital campus in Kerrville.
THE MURDERS
A jury found Ms. Laney, a 43-year-old housewife who home-schooled her children, not guilty by reason of insanity for stoning her sons to death on Mother’s Day weekend in 2003.
Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6, were found dead in the front yard of the family’s New Chapel Hill home, and then-14-month-old Aaron was found seriously injured in his crib.
Ms. Laney’s attorneys admitted during the trial that she had stoned her children, but contended that she was insane and did not know that what she was doing was wrong. Ms. Laney told authorities God told her to kill her children.
Under Texas law, people are found legally insane if, at the time of an offense, they did not know their conduct was wrong because of some mental illness or defect.
Ms. Laney was defended in trial by attorneys Files, Tonda Curry and LaJuanda Lacy, while Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, former First Assistant DA Brett Harrison and current First Assistant DA April Sikes prosecuted the case.
Judge Kent issued a restrictive and protective order, limiting what attorneys can say about the case."
Monday, December 10, 2007
A Dangerous Wait for Treatment
Here are some excerpts from an article that appeared on December 9, 2007 in the Austin-American Statesman, "After policy change, ERs seeing more mentally ill patients":
"It's been one month since Austin's mental health authority slashed the number of patients it sends to the Austin State Hospital.
Since then, nearly 30 people with mental health crises have been routed to local emergency rooms, which don't have adequate expertise or facilities to deal with psychiatric patients. The number of Travis County prisoners with mental illness waiting to be transferred to a state hospital has jumped from 30 to 43. And local health officials don't know when relief will come." ...
"The mental health center runs the county's public mental health system. The quasi-nonprofit, which operates on government and private dollars, provides psychiatric care for low-income, uninsured and indigent people. It also sends people to state-run psychiatric hospitals.
How many people can go to those hospitals, and how long they can stay, is largely ruled by money.
The Texas Department of State Health Services gives the center $8.4 million a year to spend on psychiatric hospitalizations. That generally translates to 63 people per day.
But for years, because Austin has a shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, the center routinely housed up to 110 patients in Austin State Hospital at any given time. Now, the state is telling the center to stop exceeding its quota or pay the state millions of dollars for the care of those extra patients.
That makes emergency rooms the new safety net for many mentally ill people." ...
"Meanwhile, a number of people in the Travis County Correction Complex deemed incompetent to stand trial are now waiting months to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Some have been waiting to be moved since September, said Sgt. Kitty Hicks of the Travis County sheriff's office."
Read the full article.
"It's been one month since Austin's mental health authority slashed the number of patients it sends to the Austin State Hospital.
Since then, nearly 30 people with mental health crises have been routed to local emergency rooms, which don't have adequate expertise or facilities to deal with psychiatric patients. The number of Travis County prisoners with mental illness waiting to be transferred to a state hospital has jumped from 30 to 43. And local health officials don't know when relief will come." ...
"The mental health center runs the county's public mental health system. The quasi-nonprofit, which operates on government and private dollars, provides psychiatric care for low-income, uninsured and indigent people. It also sends people to state-run psychiatric hospitals.
How many people can go to those hospitals, and how long they can stay, is largely ruled by money.
The Texas Department of State Health Services gives the center $8.4 million a year to spend on psychiatric hospitalizations. That generally translates to 63 people per day.
But for years, because Austin has a shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, the center routinely housed up to 110 patients in Austin State Hospital at any given time. Now, the state is telling the center to stop exceeding its quota or pay the state millions of dollars for the care of those extra patients.
That makes emergency rooms the new safety net for many mentally ill people." ...
"Meanwhile, a number of people in the Travis County Correction Complex deemed incompetent to stand trial are now waiting months to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Some have been waiting to be moved since September, said Sgt. Kitty Hicks of the Travis County sheriff's office."
Read the full article.
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