State lawmakers have overridden Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of a bill that will pay county jails for holding inmates awaiting space at the state psychiatric hospital.
The bill sets aside $6 million in state funds to reimburse counties for holding inmates who need psychiatric care before a criminal trial. The only facility that can offer that care is the Montana State Hospital.
Inmates often wait months for a bed. County prosecutors sometimes drop charges because that wait is longer than the sentence for the crimes inmates are accused of.
Gov. Gianforte in his June veto letter said the bill inappropriately shifts detention costs from the county to the state. He added that lawmakers allocated money to create more criminal beds at the state hospital and to build a new mental health facility for criminal defendants in eastern Montana.
He says those legislative measures will decrease the waitlist for forensic psychiatric beds.
Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of overriding that decision and enacting the policy.
- New state funding aims to provide mental health treatments for inmates
- Bill would split the state health department into two agencies
- Proposal would fund a new facility for defendants with severe mental illness
- Montanans with severe mental illness face a cycle of crisis and homelessness
- Bill on court-ordered psychiatric commitments tabled
