From KERA News:
“During his six months in the Tarrant County Jail, Kai’Yere Campbell kept asking his mom, “Am I going home?”
For a long time, Shantel Taylor didn’t have an answer for him.
Campbell is intellectually and developmentally disabled, according to Taylor, and a schizophrenia diagnosis in 2021 added another challenge. At 21, he can’t remember phone numbers, addresses or the year he graduated high school.
“He’s functioning on a childlike level,” Taylor said.
A court declared Campbell incompetent to stand trial, meaning he could not understand the charges against him or participate in his own defense. A judge ordered him to a state mental health facility.
The wait times for a bed in a state mental health facility can stretch months or even years. After being ordered to one, people have to wait behind bars, and their cases can’t move forward.”