View attachment 3114413
law.lis.virginia.gov
No, VA criminal procedure allows a court to have a defendant placed in a designated psychiatric facility if the court determines it appropriate to do so. There are probably only a few backlogged DHHS accredited employees who are able to make the call. When this happens, it's almost like a special form of bail. The judge is letting the inmate out of jail but into DHHS custody.
This is important because there are many jail inmates that a prison hospital or psychiatric unit could handle, but a local jail cannot. They can't be put in a prison hospital because they have no convictions, but they can be put in a state hospital according to intake procedures. Jails don't have the suicide-proofing that hospitals do. They have ways to keep inmates from self harming in the short term, but they bring constitutional challenges long term. Hospitals have doctors who can load Chris on antipsychotics and sedatives until he stops doing whatever they don't want him to do.
This is all how it's supposed to work. I'm sure all of these facilities are filled to the brim and people with serious mental illnesses have to stick it out in local jail all the time. Crazy people who do less serious crimes just get dumped because the state doesn't want to pay for treatment.