• Associated Press (AP)
• Published: Apr 12, 2010
  

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A newly filed lawsuit claims dozens of accused criminals with mental illnesses are being held in Louisiana parish jails for months when they should be getting treatment at a state-funded hospital.

A federal lawsuit filed Monday by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana accuses the state of violating the constitutional rights of roughly 130 pretrial detainees who have been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and await transfer to the Feliciana Forensic Facility in Jackson, La.

The ACLU says the facility hasn't been adequately funded and doesn't have room for all the detainees in need of treatment that jails aren't equipped to provide.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals and its secretary, Alan Levine, are among the defendants named in the suit.