More than 200 defendants awaiting pre-trial mental health, competency evaluations in Georgia

When it comes to the Georgia court system, trials can take years but in some cases, delays don’t come from hearings or disputes over evidence, but rather delays in mental health or competency evaluations.

Mental health evaluations being delayed can cause victims and their families to wait months, or years, before the justice process can continue.

State records show that as of Friday, there were more than 200 Georgia defendants waiting for pre-trial mental health evaluations.

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State officials said despite the number waiting for evaluation, and an average of more than two months’ wait to be tested, improvements have been made.

How long people are waiting for evaluation

The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities said the average wait times for evaluation have worked to streamline the system and improve the process over the past few years.

“DBHDD has made significant progress in reducing wait times for court-ordered forensic evaluations, even as the number of evaluation orders has remained relatively consistent,” the department said in a statement shared with Channel 2 Action News. “Since FY 2023, the average time from receiving a court order to submitting an evaluation report has decreased from approximately 188 days to 72 days in FY 2026.”

A DBHDD spokesperson said the improvements in wait times are from a “combination of streamlined administrative processes, enhanced performance monitoring, productivity incentives for evaluators, improved data tracking and expanded workforce development efforts.”

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How many are waiting for evaluation

A DBHDD spokesperson said the department currently employs 15 full-time psychologists to perform adult pre-trial mental health evaluations.

There are five more full-time psychologists working with the department that take on evaluations in addition to other duties, as well as two part-time employees performing evaluations and 18 contractors hired by the state to assist in these efforts.

Another 14 hospital staff work with DBHDD to complete evaluations after hours, according to the department.

For cases in Fulton County, DBHDD said it has contracts with Grady Health System and works with Comprehensive Psychological Services for cases, as assigned.

High-profile cases where court ordered assessment

The staff working to get competency checks completed have worked on a number of big court cases, even just in 2026.

In the past year, Georgia courts have had multiple high-profile cases where a suspect awaiting trial had to be evaluated for what’s known as mental competency, including the evaluations for Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray.

Another case that got national attention but needed the defendant to be evaluated before trial was the case of accused Atlanta Beltline stabber Johnathan Hamby.

Oftentimes, this check is required when a defendant tries to claim insanity as defense for alleged crimes.

Following his assessment, Hamby was declared not competent to stand trial for allegedly killing 29-year-old Ramon Harris.

Another case from Atlanta, where Deion Patterson shot five people at a Northside Hospital clinic in Midtown, where one victim died, had Patterson go through a competency evaluation.

Channel 2 Action News reported when he was deemed fit to stand trial in April.

All of these cases, and others, were impacted by the need for evaluations, and the number of cases waiting for those assessments to happen.

The four counties in Georgia with the most defendants awaiting a pre-trial evaluation are all in the core of the metro Atlanta area.

In order by number, Fulton County leads the state with more than 30 waiting, followed by DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties, meaning four of the top five counties with detainees waiting for evaluation are in the core of the metro Atlanta area.

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