R.I. judge remands violent offender with mental illness to hospital, not ACI

11-13-2014 Rhode Island:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday refused to sentence a man to prison for a 2012 assault on staff and patients at the Eleanor Slater Hospital for the mentally ill, saying that he will get credit for having served more than two years at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Judge Netti C. Vogel, spurning a recommendation from a state prosecutor, said Anthony Tavares will be remanded to the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, where he will remain until health-care officials determine that he is no longer a threat to society.

Tavares, 35, who has chronic paranoid schizophrenia, will have his case reviewed every six months.

David A. Levy, his defense lawyer, credited Vogel for making the proper decision. “It’s the right result, certainly,” he said.

NY- Hospitals forced into holding pattern

7-2-2008 New York:

Keith Shortsleeves knew he was going to have to stay in Glens Falls Hospital for at least a few weeks when he checked in on Jan. 20 for diabetes-related problems.

Circulation problems required partial amputation of his left leg.

But within a few weeks, Shortsleeves had recovered to the point he was ready to be discharged.

"I thought I'd just be going home," he said.

Nearly five months later, Shortsleeves is still in the hospital, despite the fact he is no longer in need of treatment there.

The hospital's staff won't let him go because he doesn't have a home that meets his needs for post-hospital care, he said during an interview in his room last week.

He is a Level 3 sex offender who can't go back to his former apartment in Fort Edward because of handicapped accessibility issues, but can't find an accessible apartment anywhere else because of laws that dictate where sex offenders can live.