HILLSBORO, Ore. — Washington County leaders say its "rapid fitness to proceed" program, intended to arrange quicker mental health evaluations for jailed defendants, is improving parts of Oregon's flawed mental healthcare system and deserving of statewide expansion.
The program is used to assess defendants in jail who are accused of a crime and in need of a mental health evaluation in order to determine if they need further treatment, can understand their charges, and assist in their own defense.
Under Oregon's statewide system, a mental fitness examination can take months — roughly 62 days on average — which can be harmful to defendants and delay the judicial process.
Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton says the county decided the state was taking far too long.
"We are sidestepping the state hospital and using the private sector instead of following a bureaucratic process that was in many ways broken," Barton said.
The county's rapid fitness program provides mental health evaluations to defendants within two or three weeks, on average.
Barton said this helps prevent "decompensation" of a defendant with mental illness in jail, or a serious degradation of their mental state. The state's delayed system, he said, causes numerous problems.
"It also hurts the victim of the crime because they're waiting for justice to proceed forward, and that delay really hurts the criminal case," he said, alluding to tied up jail beds and bogged down case dockets.
Judge Rebecca Guptill, presiding judge of Washington County who oversees the mental health docket, said it's frustrating watching defendants wait for assessment and treatment.
"Going through our rapid fitness process saves time, saves days, and reduces the amount of time someone is in custody," she said. "(Also), the amount of money saved is astronomical."
Washington County estimates the "increased efficiency" of the rapid fitness program saved taxpayers close to $2 million in 2023.
The county completed 100 rapid fitness tests through partnerships with NW Forensic Institute and Lithia Forensics and Consulting, two companies that specialize in mental competency evaluations.
"To the degree that someone else can copy us, they probably should, I think it's really working well," Guptill said.
Washington County isn't alone in operating a rapid fitness program. A Multnomah County Circuit Court spokesperson told KGW that the county has four rapid fitness exam slots each week — leading to a potential of about 200 "rapid" cases per year.
Still, both Washington County and Multnomah County leaders said they don't have the capacity to offer rapid examinations to everyone, and some defendants still wait months for state competency tests.
Barton said additional funding could allow Washington County and the private companies to pay for more evaluators.
"If we had that state funding to be able to increase the scope of what we're doing, and also to support other communities who might want to replicate the same process, I think we'd see significant benefits on a statewide level," Barton said.
Neither Washington nor Multnomah counties provided KGW with data on how many defendants in total needed competency evaluations in 2023, saying it is difficult to calculate.
Barton, who's critical of aspects of Oregon's mental health care system including its high standards for civil commitment, said the rapid fitness program is example of collaboration done right — a way to improve the system for all if supported statewide.
"What ought to happen here is the state ought to take a look at what's working well, replicate that and expand it," he said.
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