Decades of research show that people with serious mental illness who are jailed, especially in solitary confinement, experience steep declines in their mental health. But in the state of Washington, the time spent behind bars for people who are mentally ill and waiting for court-ordered treatment is at an all-time high. “It pisses me off,” said 34-year-old Josh Stuller of Spokane, who spent more than a year in solitary confinement in the Chelan County Jail in Wenatchee in 2015 and 2016. “My message to (the state) is to get your act together and take it seriously because if you let people languish in the conditions of county jails for (long periods of time), I would consider that a crime against humanity," said Stuller. Washington is experiencing the biggest backlog in state history of mentally ill defendants sitting in jails, waiting for required services to restore what’s called “competency.” That means giving defendants the help they need to understand the charges against them and to participate in their defense. In October 2021, approximately 350 defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial were waiting for a bed at Western State Hospital in Lakewood or Eastern State Hospital outside of Spokane. In October 2022, the number was about 850 people, a 142% increase in one year, state records show. The numbers include people waiting both in and out of county jails. “(Jail) is the worst place to be for a person who has a serious mental illness,” said Lisa Dailey, executive director of the Washington DC-based Treatment Advocacy Center. “It can really cause irreversible brain damage. And the longer that a person spends in untreated psychosis the harder it is for them to return to the same level of functioning once they’re receiving treatment again.” READ THE FULL STORY: https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/defendants-mental-illness-washington-jails-investigation/281-92db1269-038a-4b77-a234-d2a1dd64ff71