(March 15, 2017) Despite a judge’s order that he be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, a South Dakota man sits languishing in a jail cell while he awaits trail. (State hospital denies patient despite judge's order to admit,” The Argus Leader, March 11)
Sampson Balu, 18, was arrested last spring following a fight at a school, and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. After a psychiatric evaluation concluded he was not fit for trial, Second Circuit Judge Crystal Johnson ordered Balu committed to the Human Services Center in Yankton. County officials transported Balu to the facility, but were turned away citing lack of bed space.
The hospital’s refusal to accept Balu has prompted the Minnehaha County Public Defender's Office to sue, arguing the state hospital does not have discretion to refuse a commitment or placement by a judge. It is not the first time that the hospital has either turned away a patient sent there by judge’s orders, or been sued for doing so. The county’s Public Advocate’s Office, which represents defendants the Public Defender is unable to, also filed a similar lawsuit last fall when another client was refused admission to the Human Services Center after being committed there by a judge.
Both the Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office, and the South Dakota Department of Social Services that oversees the state-run mental health hospital, declined to comment.
Mental health advocates know that facilities have limited resources, especially in rural states with small and widely dispersed populations. However, this is happening at the state’s largest mental hospital, one of only two in the state, and it is turning away patients from the state’s largest county.
South Dakota’s two state facilities have different focuses, which according to local experts, results in patients with multiple issues being shuttled between them until the best fit is found. The hospital's refusal leaves the defendant sitting in jail, without access to the type of rehabilitation a judge requires before proceeding with his criminal case. This may increase the amount of time and cost required to rehabilitate Balu to the point where he is fit to stand trial.
The head of the Minnehaha County Jail, Lt. Jeff Gromer, says jail is not the place for inmates the court determines need psychiatric help. “The judges are ordering them to (the Human Services Center) for treatment for a reason. The jail is not a mental health treatment facility.”
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