Gov. Kevin Stitt, House Speaker Charles McCall and a top state mental health official pushed back on a proposal to settle a lawsuit accusing Oklahoma of failing to help restore criminal defendants to competency in a timely manner.
Stitt, McCall and Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Allie Friesen agreed to send a letter to a judge overseeing the case to express their concerns about the proposed consent decree, which was arranged in part by Attorney General Gentner Drummond . A consent decree is a settlement crafted by both sides to resolve the litigation, but neither side admits guilt or liability.
Drummond's office said the settlement is meant to help resolve an issue that has plagued the criminal justice system: Criminal proceedings can sometimes drag on for months or years because defendants haven't received restorative services aimed at getting them competent to stand trial. The proposed settlement includes a plan for the state to provide the services in a timely manner, the attorney general's office said.
But Stitt, McCall and Friesen questioned the cost and purpose of the proposed resolution. During a meeting Wednesday at the Capitol, Friesen said she believed the issues could be solved without the consent decree. The governor and the House speaker, who sit on the Contingency Review Board , voted to tell the judge in their joint letter they disagreed with the decree. The lesser-known board meets when a proposed settlement needs to be approved but the legislature isn't in session. Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat is the board's third voting member, but he was not able to attend Wednesday's meeting due to personal reasons.
The board's decision to write the letter came hours after Drummond issued a press release warning the public if the board rejected the consent decree outright, the action would be a "sham." He said his office received no more than a few days' notice and noted the consent decree has not yet been finalized by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frizzell.
Drummond did not attend the meeting.
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Friesen hinted during the meeting she had concerns about how the attorney general has represented the state's interests in the case and referenced his press release, saying that future representation needs to be clear and aligned with the priority of the department.
The proposed settlement stems from a 2023 federal lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Oklahoma Forensic Center by representatives of four people with mental illness. The plaintiffs claimed the state wasn't moving fast enough to transfer inmates out of local jails and into treatment centers.
The lawsuit contended the state’s competency restoration system is broken, and “scores of presumed-innocent Oklahomans who experience severe mental illness are languishing in county jails awaiting competency restoration treatment for prolonged periods that far exceed constitutional limits.”
Emails shed light on disagreement between governor, attorney general
Emails obtained by The Oklahoman show Stitt and Drummond exchanged some back-and-forth about the consent decree and Stitt's plans to call a meeting to discuss it.
In a Monday email, Drummond told Stitt the decree needs preliminary approval by Frizzell and that it “may require some modification.” Drummond added he believes all of the department’s reasonable concerns were alleviated in the consent decree.
Stitt replied Tuesday afternoon and wrote the “meeting will allow members to an opportunity to learn more about the consent decree and context surrounding it.”
Drummond replied at the end of day and said they are awaiting the court’s decision on “certain key terms” and noted that what was previously circulated is subject to change and any discussion about terms or action to decline or approve would be meaningless on a substantive basis.
“Your zeal to proceed out of order strikes me as more political theater than clear-eyed leadership,” Drummond wrote in his response to the governor. “My objective is to support victims of crime, not to provide cover for a state agency that has failed to do its job for the last six years.”
While Friesen said she believed her department could resolve the issues without a consent decree, she acknowledged during Wednesday's meeting that the process still hadn't been fully fixed.
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"We have not had time to identify the root process of the problem and apply targeted evidence based solutions to address the alleged concerns," Friesen said.
She said the jail-based competency restoration program started in 2023 has helped restore 216 people to competency.
Friesen also said the plan outlined in the consent decree looks like the Pinnacle Plan — which was the result of a lawsuit settlement against the Department of Human Service's foster care system. The plan has helped make improvements in the foster care system , according to a spring report.
Friesen said a similar plan has the "impossibility of exiting the agreement in a reasonable time frame" and questioned if the department would be able to get to a reasonable compliance. Then Stitt said the state has spent over $400 million on the Pinnacle Plan, with $18 million spent on consultants.
How competency is determined in Oklahoma criminal court cases
In Oklahoma, competency is defined as a person's ability to understand the nature of criminal charges against them and effectively and rationally assist in his or her defense. A judge or attorneys concerned about a defendant’s competency can ask for the defendant’s competency to be evaluated.
Criminal proceedings are suspended while the defendant is being evaluated. If the court determines the defendant is competent to stand trial, the criminal proceedings resume.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mental health treatment suit at center of latest dispute between Gov. Stitt, AG Drummond
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