TULSA COUNTY, Okla. — The Tulsa County Sheriff and District Attorney are speaking out in support of a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMH).

It was filed on behalf of suspects who’ve been waiting for months behind bars to receive mental health treatment.

Both Sheriff Victor Regalado and District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said this has been going on for years and it’s not fair to the inmates, who in some cases aren’t even charged. They said it’s also not fair for law enforcement who have to deal with it and taxpayers who have to pay for it.

“What got us here?” Kunzweiler said. “What got us here is it took citizens of Tulsa County having to sue a state governmental agency to try and compel that state governmental agency to try and do the job that it was responsible for doing.”

Kunzweiler and Regalado said they’ve seen issues with the ODMH throughout most of their careers.

They even called the Tulsa County Jail the state’s largest mental health facility.

“ODMH has for the better part of two decades avoided at all costs, its responsibility,” Regalado said.

A 2023 lawsuit claims the ODMH is not providing the promised mental health care for suspects ruled not able to stand trial due to mental illness.

In the state of Oklahoma, when a suspect is ruled not competent to stand trial, they are then scheduled to be taken to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita to receive mental health treatment until they can face those charges in court.

Kunzweiler and Regalado said that has not been happening.

Instead, the mentally ill individual is stuck waiting behind bars before ever being charged.

“Law enforcement can no longer shoulder the responsibility of treatment and response to the mental health crisis of Oklahoma,” Regalado said. “We must see the relief in the form of long term treatment facilities, proper funding of mental health treatment and a substantial increase in public mental health beds.”

Just this week, ODMH and the parties suing them on behalf of the inmates reached an agreement called a consent decree.

It includes a list of more than 100 changes that will take place.

“This is certainly a step in the right direction, but it is certainly not a cure-all,” Regalado said.

“This proposed consent decree is a product that the department of mental health has played a pivotal role in, nothing in the proposal comes as a surprise to the department of mental health, they have known for a long time what needed to be done, they have known what they have failed to do and they have known what they should be doing now, and this is most important, they have proven basically to the rest of us that they need legal oversight to force them to do what they should be doing, and that’s a shame,” Kunzweiler said.

FOX23 reached out to ODMH shortly after the news conference on Thursday and have not heard back.

However, we do know they had a hand in writing that agreement.

Now a federal judge and the state legislature must approve the agreement.

The agreement does not include any payout for those who filed the lawsuit.

You can read the mental health lawsuit here.