OKLAHOMA CITY – Efforts to resolve a class-action lawsuit against the state appear to have stalled.
The emergency review board voted 2-0 Wednesday to send a letter to the federal judge overseeing the case outlining concerns about a possible settlement agreement between the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the plaintiffs.
The civil rights class action lawsuit alleges that state officials are violating the due process rights of primarily indigent defendants who have been declared incompetent to stand trial and are being held in county jails.
The lawsuits allege that the state failed to provide defendants with court-ordered competency restoration treatment in a timely manner, and in some cases defendants were forced to wait months while their criminal cases remained pending.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who represents the Mental Health Department, was absent from the meeting, telling Gov. Kevin Stitt, who chairs the committee, that the meeting was premature because a consent decree to resolve the case had not been approved.
“Your eagerness to get things done without regard for order seems to me more like political theater than calm leadership,” Drummond wrote. “My goal is to support victims of crime, not shield state agencies that have failed to do their jobs for the past six years.”
He said the settlement agreement his office negotiated with the plaintiffs will save the state “millions of dollars” and “provide long-delayed justice for crime victims while ensuring due process.”
Settlements of certain cases would require approval from the Emergency Review Board when lawmakers are not in session.
Much of the meeting was spent with Gov. Kevin Stitt questioning Mental Health Commissioner Allie Friesen.
Friesen said he told Drummond multiple times that he would not agree to the consent decree as drafted.
She said the order would eliminate her ability to help people in prison.
“I cannot and will not agree to withholding services from people who are suffering,” she said.
The document takes away clinicians and experts' ability to promote evidence-based care and puts those decisions in the hands of lawyers, she said.
“This measure puts law enforcement agencies in immediate violation of court orders to provide competency restoration services to those who need them, and will subject the state to a spiral of fines and contempt charges, resulting in additional financial burdens,” Friesen said.
The measure would strip the agency of its power to decide when individuals should be transported to a forensic science center in Vinita, Oklahoma, she said.
The department has restored competency to 216 people through its prison-based competency restoration program since January 2023, she said.
He said the order could cost taxpayers about $142 million, adding that it would also affect the agency's ability to provide other services.
In response to questioning from House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka), Friesen said the proposal was similar to Project Pinnacle, which was implemented after a class-action lawsuit challenged the treatment of children in the state's foster care systems.
She said the cases are staffed by the same lawyers, are similarly structured and there is no reasonable deadline for them to be terminated.
Stitt said the state has spent more than $400 million on the Pinnacle plan, including $18 million for consultants.
Friesen said the concerns can be addressed even without a settlement agreement.
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