In King County, Washington, a decades-old law that makes any assault on a health care worker a felony has had an unintended consequence: the criminalization of people with serious mental illness. An investigation by The Marshall Project and The Seattle Times revealed that from 2018 through 2022, 76% of the 151 cases filed by county prosecutors under this law involved individuals showing signs of serious mental illness, many of whom were in the hospital for a mental health evaluation or crisis when the alleged assault occurred.
The law, originally intended to protect health care workers from increasing violence, has instead led to the arrest and prosecution of patients whose behavior landed them in the hospital in the first place. In some cases, patients were arrested out of a health care facility, only to wait weeks or months in jail to get into a state psychiatric hospital, their mental health deteriorating further behind bars.
Prosecutors often pursue charges against these patients in hopes of connecting them with services, but the reality is that many of them become too ill to understand the charges against them, stalling the legal process. In nearly 40% of the cases analyzed, the defendant's competency to stand trial was questioned due to the severity of their mental illness.
The law has also disproportionately affected homeless individuals and people of color. More than a third of the cases involved people who were homeless, and 40% of those charged were described as Black in police reports, despite the county's population being only 7% Black.
While health care workers face increasing abuse and violence on the job, experts argue that increased penalties for people in crisis do little to deter such behavior. Instead, they advocate for prevention measures such as de-escalation training, increasing staffing, and offering more preventive care for people with serious mental illness.
Some states have adopted similar laws in recent years, with Congress debating whether to make these assaults a federal crime. However, others have failed to pass such legislation due to concerns about their effectiveness and impact on people with mental illnesses and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has updated its guidelines to more explicitly caution attorneys as they consider charging people for assaults committed during a mental health crisis, but the law itself remains unchanged. Advocates argue that anyone who is in the hospital for mental health care and assaults someone without causing serious injury should be spared felony charges and instead connected to mental health support.
As more states consider adopting similar laws, the investigation by The Marshall Project and The Seattle Times serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive approach to addressing violence against health care workers while also ensuring that people with serious mental illness receive the care and support they need.
