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Austinities visit the Austin Public Library in Austin on Wednesday, July 3, 2019.<\/p>\n
Lola Gomez<\/p>\n
Daniel\u00a0Vasquez had already cycled through the jail and a mental\u00a0health diversion program before he allegedly assaulted a stranger last month<\/a> at Austin’s Central Library, an attack that left a 62-year-old man with a life-altering brain injury. In the aftermath, the debate centered on a false binary of options. Law enforcement advocates\u00a0argued that prosecution for\u00a0Vasquez’s\u00a0previous crimes would have kept the public safe, while Travis County District Attorney Jos\u00e9 Garza said that incarceration would have been short-lived and ineffective.<\/p>\n Both sides are arguing within the limits of a system that is not built to handle people like Vasquez. For those with severe, untreated mental illness, neither prosecution nor short-term diversion reliably protects the public or leads to long-term stability. What\u2019s missing is a third option: state-funded residential care for people who cannot safely live on their own but do not belong behind bars or at a state mental\u00a0health hospital.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Vasquez’s case is not an outlier. Deepak Kandel, who was accused of\u00a0fatally stabbing an innocent bystander on a CapMetro bus in May 2025, has a history of mental illness and was deemed incompetent to stand trial<\/a> last August. His case, like Vasquez\u2019s, underscores a system that repeatedly fails to intervene in a meaningful way before tragedy occurs. The consequences are increasingly visible \u2014 not just in high-profile incidents, but on streets across Austin, where some people are suffering in plain view from untreated conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unacceptable that untreated mental illness can turn a public outing into tragedy. Yet these and other cases point to the same structural failure: Some people with serious conditions are\u00a0caught in the \u201crevolving door\u201d where mental health and criminal justice intersect, never reaching the long-term stability that would improve public\u00a0safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n An effort underway in the Texas Health and Human Services Commission aims to address this gap. Through an addendum to last year’s state budget bill known as Rider 56,<\/a>\u00a0the commission must study and propose a pilot program of \u201cresidential intermediate care services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.\u201d The study is assessing the \u201cexisting unmet needs\u201d of people who have been released from treatment programs but are not appropriate to be placed in the community.<\/p>\n It’s imperative\u00a0that the commission develop a\u00a0comprehensive, effective program \u2014 and that the Legislature fund it. The commission has already put notable resources toward the effort, with more than 40 policy, program, data and subject matter experts working on the study.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As part of the effort, the commission surveyed hundreds of stakeholders across the mental health and criminal justice systems. Their 475 responses, which we obtained through an open records request and analyzed using\u00a0ChatGPT,\u00a0point to a striking level of agreement about what’s missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Consensus among jail administrators, advocates and families is not easy to reach. Yet across those groups, when asked about the most significant barriers facing people being discharged from treatment programs, the top answers included the lack of appropriate facilities.\u00a0The second most significant barrier, according to those surveyed, was funding limitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The responses converged on a clear solution to the problem: high-support housing with round-the-clock staffing for those who no longer meet criteria for a state mental health\u00a0hospital. And, of course, the funding to pull it off.<\/p>\n SIGN UP FOR THE AUSTIN ANGLE<\/a> and get Statesman commentaries in your inbox<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now view Vasquez’s situation in light of those responses: He was put in Travis County\u2019s mental health diversion program for charges of misdemeanor assault in 2024. He completed six months of treatment at a South Austin rehabilitation clinic and complied with the requirements to get the charges dismissed. Officials could not give details of the care he received, but his completion of the program implies he was improving.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Vasquez had nowhere to go. After his release last June, he ended up living on the street. Any progress he made in the diversion program was unlikely to last without a safe, supportive place to live after his release.<\/p>\n For too long, the state has pushed the responsibility for mental health care to counties, and it is not working. It creates a system in which counties that try to provide\u00a0mental health services, such as Travis County, can become overloaded with people from counties that do not.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous that the state does so little,\u201d Travis County Judge Andy Brown told us.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A 2024 state auditor\u2019s report found that Travis County had the\u00a0second-highest number of repeat offenders<\/a> who ended up on the competency restoration waitlist, with 676 since 2018. People found mentally unfit to stand trial are given just enough treatment to restore their competency so they can resolve their charges \u2014 only to backslide,\u00a0re-offend and require another round of court-ordered mental health treatment.<\/p>\n Only Dallas County saw more pass through its “revolving door,” with 808. These and the other three counties in the top five \u2014 Bexar, Harris and Tarrant \u2014 all have some form of voluntary mental health diversion programs and involuntary\u00a0assisted outpatient treatment<\/a>, a court-ordered program\u00a0to help people adhere to their treatment plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n A man holds his phone while talking about how he lived on and off the streets for nearly 30 years. For people exiting mental health diversion programs, having a safe, supportive place to live is key to maintaining stability, the Editorial Board writes.<\/p>\n Ricardo Brazziell\/Ricardo B. Brazziell<\/p>\n Here in Travis County, at least, the program can’t reach all who need it. With the capacity to only serve 45 participants at a time, assisted outpatient treatment services at Integral Care, the county’s mental health authority, \u201cremain limited in their ability to reach all individuals who could benefit, particularly those with the most complex and persistent behavioral health needs,\u201d spokesperson Munji Nfor said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rider 56 is not perfect. Advocates say an \u201cand\u201d in the criteria for participation in the pilot program should have been an \u201cor,\u201d meaning a person must meet certain arrest, incarceration and hospitalization conditions for eligibility \u2014 setting such a high bar that few may actually qualify. Clearly that crucial conjunction should be fixed to ensure the program reaches those who need it.<\/p>\n If developed correctly,\u00a0the Rider 56 effort could create the state-level mental health facilities that Texas desperately needs. Lawmakers must ensure the momentum continues and the funding follows.<\/p>\n Support for this type of approach cuts across the usual political divides. A spokesperson for the statewide police union coalition known as CLEAT told us it \u201cwill support legislation next session to add beds that will facilitate these dangerous individuals remaining in custody on an involuntary basis.\u201d<\/p>\n Garza made the same appeal in a different tone: \u201cUntil the state commits to properly funding mental health resources, we will continue to see individuals cycling in and out of our jails and courts who are not getting the resources they need,\u201d he told us in an email.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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