EXTENDED INVESTIGATION: KXAN’s half-hour ‘Locked in Limbo’ special

VIDEO: Watch KXAN’s full half-hour investigative special above.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — In a single month in 2019, a record 1,017 inmates were waiting in Texas’ county jails to be transferred to a state hospital for mental competency restoration. Many had already been part of the system backlog for months, needing that specific treatment before they would be capable of standing trial and moving justice forward.

For the past year, KXAN investigators have researched this waitlist and the contributing factors – an aging state hospital system, decades of funding challenges and the severe need for greater focus on “brain health.” As part of the “Locked in Limbo” project, our team met families stuck in this system, suffering the stigma of mental illness.

In this half-hour special, we share their stories, explore alternatives for restoration and give viewers an inside look at how the investigation came together. After watching, you can continue exploring what we’ve discovered: