Statement on Agreement Between DBHDD and GAO/SCHR Regarding Forensic Services

Like many states, Georgia has seen increased demands on its behavioral health system since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of that increased demand comes from the criminal justice system as more people are being ordered to competency evaluation or restoration services. 

Georgia’s forensic population accounted for 2,500 adult evaluation orders in Fiscal Year 2025 alone. Currently, more than 500 adults are awaiting a pre-trial competency evaluation. The State is also seeing steady increase in the percentage of defendants found incompetent to stand trial year after year. As a result, Georgia has more than 700 individuals awaiting a hospital bed.

Over the last several years the State of Georgia has undertaken meaningful steps to reduce this backlog by accelerating service delivery and increasing available bedspace. Those include: 

• DBHDD opened the state’s first standalone jail restoration center in January 2025. Since then, 45 people have been discharged with an average restoration time of just 74 days.
• The Georgia General Assembly and Governor Kemp appropriated an additional $20.7 million in the state’s Amended Fiscal Year 2026 budget to build a second jail restoration facility with 40 beds on the campus of DBHDD’s Augusta hospital.
• The Amended Fiscal Year 2026 budget also includes $409 million for a new state hospital on the campus of Georgia Regional Hospital Atlanta. The project is already being prepared for bidding under a design-build model meant to shorten the overall project timeline.

While recognizing the progress these efforts represent, DBHDD shares the concerns voiced by the Georgia Advocacy Office (GAO) and the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) regarding the backlog of individuals awaiting forensic services.   

To that end, the parties have entered into a joint agreement requiring DBHDD to meet certain benchmarks regarding reducing the time an individual in the care of the state must wait for a competency evaluation or to receive competency restoration services.

Ultimately, by the time this agreement expires in November 2029, DBHDD will provide a competency evaluation within 30 days and no individual will have to wait more than 30 days for admission to a competency restoration program.  Both deadlines are measured from the time the Department receives a court order.     

DBHDD and GAO/SCHR negotiated this agreement in good faith always focused on the shared goal of reducing Georgia’s forensic backlog while avoiding time consuming and costly litigation.

The State of Georgia has made great strides in modernizing and investing in its behavioral health system in the last several years.  This agreement represents yet another step forward in that important work.