Turn Edgefield back into the poor/work farm.
Better yet - turn HALF of Edgefield back into the poor/work farm.

It is hilarious that Dentinger complains about attorneys actually protecting an individual's rights as part of the problem.

This is just another example of the usual suspects downtown wasting time and money on their personal vendettas and their contempt for the court system. Be very nervous when rich guy Hren, Jeff "Jesus" Myers and the business folks get together to start pushing for changes in the law and to limit civil liberties.

Jean Detinger is complaining that the Public Defender's office attorneys are too good? I think that as she points also points out, it is the DA that has dropped the ball. Almost all written opinions from the Court of Appeals overturning commitments are in favor of the "defense".

In the majority of the published appellate decisions the state Attorney General agrees with the defense that the court and the DA screwed up. The contents of most of the caselaw describe the state agreeing that the judge and the County DA messed up. Maybe using the baby DAs in civil commitments is the origin of the problem and the city should pay for some better legal representation for the county? Or maybe the county should do the work themselves, as the statute allows? Why involve the DA at all, since they have just screwed it up?

Lobbying for changing the involuntary commitment laws is a waste of time, energy and money, since the majority of the problems can be solved by the state getting a real lawyer into the courtroom. Additionally, the barrier will be that most of the civil commitment laws have constitutional origins and the mesh of federal and state constitutional laws would be very difficult to overcome. So go ahead and change the law but those legal rock stars down at the public defenders office will just block the application of the law.

I agree there are many ways it could be done better. I saw the court re-commit someone for drinking too much caffeine. (Which I believe was reversed by the Court of Appeals.) Talk about wasting resources when there are people who are really desperate.

Ok, imagine that you have to drive across town to work. You have a car that goes 50 mph. Everyday you are late to work because you are always stuck in traffic and sitting at traffic lights. You average 25 mph.

How do you fix this problem? Do you
A) Get a new car that goes 100 mph?
B) Take the freeway?
C) Leave a little earlier?
D) B and C.

The answer is D. Jeff Myers and that downtown crew would suggest A, the most complicated and least efficient method.

The way to fix the civil commitment system is to actually successfully utilize the existing legal framework in an efficient manner. It's not the laws that are the problem, its that the county and the DA can't apply the law correctly. The court's decisions are just he court saying to the DA - "you have failed to prove your allegations."

How about the following proposals to :

1. Get trained lawyers (with actual bar cards, not law students) in there to represent the county. Washington County uses county counsel rather than the DA's office for civil commitments and they actually screen cases so they don't waste time on the people that aren't going to be committed. Multnomah County DAs take any case the investigator suggests with no evaluation of the case. (and then they lose).

2) Have the investigators for the county actually bring in the proper witnesses for these cases. Dozens of cases a year are lost because there are simply no witnesses. If they would put a little more effort in up front, they would get better results.

3) Have the pscyhological evaluators do their statutorily described jobs of beginning the evaluation the day before the hearing by reviewing medical records and independently evaluating the allegedly mentally ill person. Don't wait until the hearing has already started.

4) Recognize that $10 of medication a day and assistance in the community is way cheaper than frequent 5 day civil commitment holds.