The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health was fined $928,400 for failing to comply with court-mandated deadlines to provide timely mental health treatment to defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial, according to a Nov. 18 report from The Frontier.
The fines, which began accumulating in October, stem from delays in competency restoration treatment. The decree requires the state to pay $100 per day for each person waiting more than 60 days, increasing to $600 per day after an additional 60 days. The state also faces $100 daily fines for delays exceeding 30 days for competency evaluations, according to the report.
The state will be subject to additional penalties in November and December. Starting in January, the department will be fined for each person waiting more than 45 days for treatment. Total fines are capped at $3.5 million through March 2026.
As of Sept. 22, the department reported a reduction in average wait times from 214 days in June to 79 days. At that time, 139 people remained on the waiting list.
The $928,400 in fines will be deposited into a third-party account managed by class counsel, the state attorney general’s office and court-appointed experts. The funds are restricted to supporting services for people with mental illness and competency issues that are not otherwise mandated by the consent decree or state law.
In response to the decree, the state legislature provided a $30 million appropriation to help the agency close a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
