Jail-Based Competency Restoration Services in the United States: The Need, the Controversy, the Impact of COVID-19, and Implications for Future Treatment Delivery

Abstract

Jail-based competency restoration largely emerged as a method to address the backlog at forensic hospitals around the United States, as the number of justice-involved persons in need of restoration outgrew available beds. Jail-based competency restoration units (JBCRUs) appear to be highly effective and cost-saving. However, after the COVID-19 outbreak, services at some JBCRUs were stalled, as providers were forced to either quickly initiate or ramp up technology use to maintain services. The present study describes the course of programming for a JBCRU in Fulton County, Georgia, prior to and after the onset of COVID-19, during which time all treatment shifted to telehealth. A matched comparison group of prepandemic defendants was used to compare in-person versus telehealth services and findings indicated that while defendants’ length of stay remained effectively the same, the restoration rate for telehealth increased remarkably over prepandemic levels (χ2 = 10.1, p = .001). Such findings suggest that telehealth services are an effective mode of delivery for competency restoration.