Nevada to pay $753K for delays in providing mental health care to
criminal defendants
[June 13, 2025]
The Nevada Independent
The State of Nevada will pay more than $753,000 in court-ordered fines
for delays in providing criminal defendants with mental health care at a
psychiatric facility in Sparks.
The Nevada Board of Examiners — composed of the governor, attorney
general and secretary of state — signed off on the payment Tuesday after
a Washoe County district court judge in April held the state in contempt
for failing to provide timely treatment to criminal defendants deemed
mentally unfit to stand trial.
The penalty relates to delays in treatment for nine defendants who were
considered mentally incompetent and set for health treatment at the
Lakes Crossing Center in Sparks. The state, under the judge’s order, has
to pay $500 for every day that a defendant did not receive timely
treatment.
These sanctions amounted to $216,000 as of mid-April (when the request
to approve the funding was submitted) but the total cost for the ongoing
fiscal year was expected to be $753,500, according to a memo from the
Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH), the agency responsible
for providing the mental health care. The money will go to the Washoe
County general fund.
An agency spokesperson did not provide comment on Tuesday.
It’s the latest development in the yearslong issue of timely mental
health care aimed at restoring the competence of criminal defendants so
that they can stand trial. Wait times are decreasing — the average time
for treatment after a court order has decreased from 122 days in 2022 to
74 days as of February, according to information presented to lawmakers
earlier this year — but state officials have acknowledged that the issue
is far from over.
In its April memo requesting approval of the latest sanction payout, the
agency said it expected to pay $3.6 million in fines throughout the next
two-year budget cycle. It paid about $181,000 from September 2022 to
October 2024, according to information presented at a legislative
hearing this year.
The agency touted its efforts across the past two years to provide
timely mental health care to defendants, but acknowledged that “the wait
time remains significantly higher than” the agency’s stated goal to
provide care within 20 days.
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 Its initiatives include increasing
the capacity for treatment for Southern Nevada defendants and
constructing a new Southern Nevada facility for defendants with
mental illness set to open in 2029.
Other projects include American Rescue Plan-funded
programs that are set to expire in the upcoming budget cycle,
including ones to provide support to defendants awaiting mental
health treatment and place long-term patients into skilled nursing
facilities. However, the agency’s upcoming two-year budget included
funding to continue the latter program.
The agency’s budget also allocates $17.6 million for 21 additional
beds for Southern Nevada patients and 53 new positions related to
care for criminal defendants.
The payout comes about 18 months after the Nevada Supreme Court
upheld a lower court’s decision that the agency must continue paying
the $500 daily fines. The decision followed a Clark County judge’s
contempt ruling against the agency for delays in care, but the state
argued that the sanctions would be “impossible” to meet.
The agency has also faced multiple lawsuits about timely mental
health treatment dating back to 2005. One suit prompted a consent
decree — a legally binding agreement — that mandated the department
move incompetent defendants to treatment facilities within one week
of receiving a competency order. That agreement expired in 2020.
Nevada has continued to lag behind almost every other state in
mental health care and ranks worst in the nation for its youth
mental health services.
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This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and
distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
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