Jail-Based Restoration to Competency: An Investigation of Program Recidivism and Contested Competency Cases

Abstract

ABSTRACT While jail-based restoration to competency (RTC) programs are becoming more common, research on these programs and defendants who complete them is limited. The present study investigated characteristics of defendants who have completed a jail-based RTC program more than once to determine what factors differentiate them from those who completed the program only once. This study also investigated whether the use of psychological tests in competency to stand trial (CST) evaluations reduced the number of competency cases that are contested. Several predictors of RTC program repetitions were identified. However, no differences in number of contested cases were found in CST evaluations that used assessment instruments compared to evaluations where no assessment was used.