The County is reckoning with a growing number of individuals deemed incompetent to stand trial.

In 2019, Garrett Scheff, a 43-year-old man who suffered from mental health issues, was accused of stabbing a pregnant woman to death in Salinas. A few months later, his ability to stand trial was called into question. Under state law, he had to undergo mental health evaluations to determine whether or not he could proceed, and was deemed incompetent. He was placed in a queue to receive treatment before returning to court.

Scheff’s case is not unique. On July 1, 2025, County Administrative Officer Sonia De La Rosa announced to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors there were 44 of these individuals in fiscal year 2022-23 and 84 in 2023-24, exceeding the county’s cap by 25 and leading to over $1.4 million in penalties owed to the state.

“We have no control over this,” Supervisor Luis Alejo said. “We’re getting fined for some artificial number. Don’t penalize the county.”

This process of evaluating and treating felony defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial, known as IST, stems from a lawsuit filed a decade ago, when the ACLU sued California’s state hospital system for leaving disabled defendants in jails without treatment or due process. The suit claimed the Department of State Hospitals and Department of Developmental Services let individuals suffer in jails for months: One plaintiff was sexually abused, another died by suicide.

The ACLU won the lawsuit, which led to statewide standards requiring counties to properly evaluate and treat individuals who committed felonies in case they are deemed mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial. Monterey County’s baseline was set following recommendations from an IST workgroup convened by state agencies, using total felony IST determinations made in 2021-22. (Superior Court judges make competency determinations based on input from mental health experts.)

The vast majority, 90-95 percent, of these individuals are represented by the Monterey County’s Public Defender’s Office, according to Assistant Public Defender Tom O’Keefe. Initial assessments are typically made at arraignment, but doubts about a person’s ability to understand court proceedings or assist counsel in their defense can be made at any stage in the process.

Depending on the individual’s needs – for example, if someone needs specific medication or has a more severe mental health condition – treatment settings can vary from outpatient care (less common in Monterey County) to state hospital or jail-based competency treatment.

But assessing baseline numbers for this population is, of course, complicated, says Chief Deputy Public Defender Michelle Wouden. She notes that the levers of control rely on the strength of social programs, including mental health infrastructure, early intervention efforts and broader socioeconomic and cultural attitudes toward mental illness.

This law also took effect during the pandemic, which reduced social interactions and created barriers to treatment.

“Individuals who have strong social support, economic support, housing support aren’t the ones that we’re seeing in the system,” Wouden says. “I’m sure there was a lot more support in place for individuals prior to the pandemic, and it feels like we’ve gone a little bit backwards from that.”