Construction of the Brockmann Residential Treatment Facility, a state-run, 48-bed campus designed to serve individuals under civil commitment orders, is mostly complete. But despite what local officials call an urgent need for psychiatric treatment beds and years of planning, the facility will remain closed indefinitely, sidelined by state budget cuts even before it could accept a single patient.
The Clark County Council is urging state leaders to reverse course.
On Wednesday, June 18, the council unanimously approved a letter to the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), the governor’s office and state lawmakers calling for immediate action to fund and open the Brockmann campus. The letter warns that keeping the facility in “warm closure” status, maintained but not operational, undermines the state’s own behavioral health goals.
There is a shortage of treatment options in Washington state for those who need civil commitment psychiatric and therapeutic interventions,” the letter reads. “... By ‘warm closing’ this facility immediately after construction, the state has condemned those with severe mental health issues to often be held in jails without the capacity for robust treatment, harming both those individuals and the corrections staff who are responsible for their care.”
County Council Chair Sue Marshall said she was taken aback when she learned the state would not open the facility as planned.
“My first reaction was surprise because I believe that (in) Clark County’s local delegation, there was a lot of support for building that facility and funding,” Marshall said. “So I was surprised that it didn’t get the support to fully open and operate it.”
She said the council’s letter is an attempt to clarify the need for the facility to begin serving the community.
“We’re sending (the letter) just to make the legislators and governor aware that this is an important thing for our community,” Marshall said. “Hopefully, funding could be found to fully open it and serve the community.”
The Brockmann facility was expected to create 154 full-time jobs and help relieve pressure on facilities such as Western State Hospital, which has been overwhelmed by demand for psychiatric beds, according to Marshall. But in the face of a projected $16 billion state budget shortfall over the next four years, the Legislature opted to delay the facility’s opening until at least 2027 to save an estimated $74 million.
Marshall said the impact of that decision will fall most heavily on individuals in crisis who are currently stuck in the criminal justice system due to a lack of treatment options.
“Some of these folks … they may end up just languishing. They have been languishing in jail, some of them, waiting for a bed at Western State Hospital or other places,” she said. “These folks really should be in more of a treatment hospital setting.”
She added that while the county has expanded local behavioral health services, it’s far from enough.
“We are doing our best in Clark County to provide substance abuse treatment and mental health services, but it’s not really adequate,” she said. “It just seems like such a waste of the resources to be spent to build it and not have the funds to operate it.”
She added that the Brockmann facility would provide a more appropriate setting than jail for many in crisis.
“If there were more treatment facilities, yes ... It’s just where the folks go to get the help that they need,” she said. “That would be a place that people could go, rather than the jail. (There are) plenty of constraints on the jail as it is.”
Marshall also noted that while the county is working to improve services inside the jail, including becoming the only jail in the state licensed to provide opioid treatment, incarceration is not a substitute for care.
“Our hope is — and I think we’re the only jail in the state that has been licensed to provide treatment for opioids,” Marshall said. “A majority of the folks in the jail, there is substance issues and mental health issues … Some of them might be eligible for a spot like Brockmann.”
For now, minimal staffing and security will remain on site to keep the facility intact. The facility will cost $595,000 to maintain for the next two years.
