A recent expose by The Tacoma News Tribune of the state’s largest mental health facility is not only perhaps one of the most glaring examples of the inmates literally running the asylum as you’ll ever get, but it’s also a vivid example of how failings within the state’s mental health system is driving much of Seattle and King County’s homelessness problem.

The story is effectively on par with Gotham’s Arkham Asylum appointing the Joker to head up patient therapy.

It includes:

• State officials hiring a convicted felon as an institutional counselor
• Hiring the convicted felon just days after he got out of jail
• The felon employee having 22 prior felony convictions for “theft, forgery, identity theft and drug possession.”
• The convicted felon employee committing five more felonies while employed, including drug dealing, and still keeping his job
• The convicted felon employee stealing money from mental health patients 117 times – and not getting charged
• The convicted felon employee never getting fired from Western State Hospital, and was actually promoted

According to The News Tribune:

Mark James, 62, worked for the state’s largest mental hospital for four years, starting in 2017. He was hired 13 days after he was booked into the Pierce County Jail on a fugitive warrant from Oregon, six days after he was booked into an Oregon jail on two charges of dealing heroin and other drug-related offenses. A week after the Oregon booking, on April 24, 2017, James received his official letter from the State of Washington, congratulating him on his hiring as an institutional counselor.

Does anyone wonder why we have such a crime problem in this state? Look no further. This is how criminal behavior is apparently rewarded. Even when he continued to commit felonies while employed at the hospital, his direct supervisor told the court he was competent to continue working with them.

Make Your Voice Heard!

Contact Governor Jay Inslee or call him at 360-902-4111 and tell him how you feel about this scandal at Western State Hospital after he’s been running it for 10 years!

When they discovered he had stolen money from patients, Lakewood police investigated but the prosecutor’s office declined to file charges. When the hospital went to retrain staff to prevent this kind of problem again, they found there had been no instance of ongoing theft apart from James, who later left for a job in Oregon.

As The News Tribune article explains, patients at Western State Hospital are in a vulnerable position, having been forcibly incarcerated due to mental illness. One of the reasons that James ostensibly got off the hook for the thefts is that the prosecutor felt they lacked reliable testimony from patients. In other words, these people are in a profoundly defenseless position and there should have been strict protocols in place to ensure they are not taken advantage of in any way by staff. 

Imagine a loved one or relative is suffering from mental problems and has been incarcerated at Western State Hospital. Imagine hoping that they finally get the help they need, only to have employees prey on them, with no consequences.

In total, this story is profoundly disturbing for many reasons.

One, there are many homeless people on the street right now that belong in a mental hospital, voluntarily or not, where they can receive treatment, care, and are kept safe from either themselves or others. Not only is the state’s number of mental hospital beds pitifully small, but the existing facilities like Western State Hospital have repeatedly shown they are not safe places for patients.

How is this compassionate in any way?

If we were to have an effective, safe statewide system in place, much of the regional homelessness problem would not exist. It’s why despite spending billions of dollars on homelessness the situation hasn’t improved, because shelters and temporary housing doesn’t address the root cause. Had that money been invested in mental health facilities with competent staff to work there, there would be permanent housing for these people rather than public parks and trails acting as drug camps.

Put differently, Seattle and King County’s homelessness problems are driven by broader issues occurring elsewhere in the state.

The situation is unacceptable.

However, there’s another problem going on, and that is the total lack of government accountability. There’s absolutely no good reason for the state to have hired a convicted felon mere days after his release from jail. There’s absolutely no good reason for them to continue employing him once he was again convicted of felonies. There’s absolutely no good reason for him to remain employed and promoted after he was found stealing from patients. 

While there need to be more mental hospital beds, there also must be reforms implemented at Western State Hospital to ensure this never happens again.

That includes:

• Strong scrutiny of any potential employee’s background (no felony convictions).
• Termination of employment for any felony convictions.
• Protocols in place to ensure that no person whose testimony would be deemed “unreliable” in a courtroom is ever left alone with just one staff member.

What happens in Lakewood at a state mental institution may seem far away to people in Seattle and King County, but it’s imperative to understand that the dysfunction taking place at Western State Hospital and at any other mental health facility in the state is exacerbating the homelessness crisis you can see and experience walking out your front door.

Contact Governor Jay Inslee or call him at 360-902-4111 and tell him how you feel about this scandal at Western State Hospital after he’s been running it for 10 years!