State hospital no longer performing court-ordered mental health exams

Mark Walker
Argus Leader

South Dakota's state-run mental health hospital is done performing court-ordered mental health screenings for criminal defendants.

The Human Services Center in Yankton had become a bottleneck in recent years as the volume of mental health exams requested by judges in the state exceeded the number the state hospital was willing to perform.

A 2015 Argus Leader Media investigation found the state routinely jailing defendants for months without trial because of scheduling delays for the exams. Legislation passed in the wake of the investigation transferred funding for the exams to counties.

“(The Human Services Center) discontinued competency evaluations on July 1, 2017, as the funding was transferred to the Association of County Commissioners per House Bill 1183,” said Tia Kafka, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. 

The Department of Social Services and the Association of County Commissioners is establishing a fund to help counties hire private doctors to perform the evaluations, which are needed to determine if defendants are mentally fit to stand trial.

Some counties had already been using their own funds to hire private psychiatrists and psychologists to perform the exams. The impact of the state hospital's decision to stop performing court-ordered exams completely is yet to be seen.

More: Mental health court money left out of state budget

More: Interim administrator named to state's mental health hospital

Court administrators were working with the Department of Social Services to identify mental health professionals who are qualified to perform the evaluations.

“Here in the Second Circuit, the list provided by Social Services so far only gives us two providers in this area,” said Karl Thoennes, who manages the court system in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties. “So this circuit has assembled its own list that we will forward the state court administrator and DSS at some point.”  

Minnehaha County Commissioner Cindy Heiberger on Tuesday attended the first meeting of a watchdog committee assigned to make sure the state’s mental health reforms are working. 

Heiberger said she doesn’t expect a lot will change. She said judges will still order competency evaluations and they will need to be completed.

“I don’t see a tremendous amount of change except now we will no longer be taking them down to HSC,” Heiberger said.

She remains optimistic that new $125,000 fund being setup with the Associations of County Commissioners will help provide timely evaluation for defendants. Counties will be reimbursed twice a year for money spent hiring psychologists to do the evaluations.

“It is intended to be a yearly distribution to the association to reimburse the counties,” Heiberger said. “I’m confident they will be doing that.”

Contact criminal justice watchdog reporter Mark Walker at 605-331-2333, mwalker@argusleader.com or @ArgusMWalker.