Advocates, family members denounce jail deaths at Texas Capitol hearing

This story is part of the KXAN investigation, “Mental Competency Consequences,” a project supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Advocates and family members of people who have experienced mental illness in custody met Thursday at a Texas Commission on Jail Standards hearing to speak publicly and raise awareness of jail deaths and a state hospital system backlog that has left thousands of mentally ill people waiting for treatment for months, or years, in jail.

For years, KXAN has followed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s struggle to move people found incompetent to stand trial from jail to state hospital beds for competency restoration.

Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, helped organize family members who spoke at the TCJS hearing at the Texas Capitol. Gundu said people with mental illness aren’t just languishing in jails across the state without treatment, many die while waiting.

With state hospitals full, people found incompetent to stand trial – and ordered to receive competency restoration – are placed on the waitlist and typically stay in jail until a state hospital bed becomes available. The waitlist grew consistently for years and peaked at more than 2,500 individuals in the summer and fall of 2023. Since that time, the waitlist has inched down and more beds have come online.

In December, there were over 1,900 people on the waitlist.

KXAN will be covering the hearing and updating this report Thursday.