State officials say 21 renovated forensic beds will help short-term waits; new forensic hospital planned over four years

Building 3A at the state hospital campus will add 21 forensic inpatient beds when renovations finish in mid-May, and staff would be available in July if the Legislature approves the requested positions, Administrator Cody Finney told the Joint Subcommittee on Human Services.

The addition is one element of a multi‑part effort to reduce court fines and shorten wait times for forensic inpatient placement, Finney said. “Since September of ’22, we’ve paid a total of $181,500 in fines,” he told the committee while describing court-ordered penalties tied to delays in admitting defendants to competency restoration services.

Why it matters: Courts have at times ordered fines when defendants who need forensic inpatient evaluation or restoration cannot be promptly admitted. Lawmakers and agency staff said adding beds and managing length of stay are immediate tools available while the state plans a larger replacement facility.

Finney said the Building 3A renovation has an estimated cost of $9,300,000 in ARPA funds and that the construction contractor has given a target completion date of May 15. He told the committee the staffing requested for the new unit would be hired and distributed across existing units to train and integrate staff, with the requested positions’ pay period beginning July 1 if funded.

Committee members pressed officials about the scale of the problem and how much relief 21 beds will provide. Senator Kathy Cherwin (for the record) noted historical delays in transporting individuals from detention to forensic beds, saying that at one point average transfer times were about 129 days and that they had fallen to about 74 days as of Feb. 12. Finney described Building 3A as “one piece” of several measures that also include using community skilled nursing beds for long‑term forensic patients and other efforts to manage length of stay and diversion.

Longer range plan: State facilities staff told the committee the renovated beds at Building 3A will remain available until a new forensic hospital opens. A state facilities representative said 3 and 3A (the two existing forensic buildings) “will remain in place and operational until the new facility is up and operational.” Department staff estimated the new forensic hospital would require about four years to build after approvals and related site work, including relocation of other programs on the campus.

Budget and funding context: Committee members asked whether the ARPA funds for Building 3A will be fully expended and whether there will be any savings; a facilities official said he would confirm whether there will be leftover funds. Finney and other witnesses said courts have expressed gratitude for recent reductions in wait times but signaled the possibility that fines could be reimposed if progress stalls.

What remains unsettled: The department said it has no additional, immediate plans to add more forensic beds beyond Building 3A and the proposed new hospital. Officials also acknowledged that the expanded capacity will not fully eliminate the longer‑term need for a larger forensic facility and that building a new hospital will take several years.

Documentation and next steps: Finney offered to provide updated waiting‑list figures and a running total of contempt‑of‑court fines to the committee to help quantify fiscal tradeoffs and the impact of diversion and community placement strategies.

(Reported from testimony to the Joint Subcommittee on Human Services and subsequent public comment.)