Report: Psychiatric care found lacking

Problems with medical errors aren't the only health-care issues at King County's two jails. A confidential 2004 report obtained by The Seattle Times also reveals questions about treatment of inmates with mental illnesses.

According to that report, by forensic psychologist Dr. Keith Curry: "A combination of dangerous conditions, inadequate staffing, poor screening, barriers to access and outright denial of care, questionable legal practices and lack of discharge planning were found."

Curry's report was commissioned by the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C. It came after a preliminary investigation into jail mental-health issues by the Washington State Protection and Advocacy System, a nonprofit organization that protects the rights of those with disabilities.

At the time, Curry found that nearly a quarter of the inmates admitted to jail were not screened for psychiatric problems within three days of their booking. The timing was problematic, he said, because it is dangerous for someone with psychiatric problems to go without their drugs for that long a period.

The jail has been cooperating with the state Protection and Advocacy System, said Deborah Dorfman, the system's director of legal advocacy.

"They have made extensive changes," Dorfman said. "But there are still things that need to be done."

Among the changes is an aggressive psychiatric screening process for new inmates being booked into the jail, said Jail Health Executive Director Bette Pine. The goal, she said, is to see any inmate with a possible psychiatric problem within their first 24 hours in jail.