A Kentucky woman with severe mental illness and intellectual disabilities may soon be released from a prison cell where she has been held in isolation for the past year. State officials and advocates involved in the case are working to admit Rachel Hurt, 35, to a psychiatric hospital following a hearing last week in Franklin Circuit Court where a judge directed them to find a better placement. “I just want to explore what the options are and how we can best get Ms. Hurt into an appropriate program,” Judge Phillip Shepherd told the parties gathered in his courtroom Dec. 6. Hurt “literally falls between the bureaucratic cracks,” Shepherd wrote in a previous order. The Kentucky Lantern reported Dec. 5 that Hurt, who has bipolar disorder, a brain injury and an IQ of 67, has been held at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women since 2020 for a parole violation over an assault conviction.  Her violation? She failed to follow conditions of her parole by not maintaining a place to live and becoming homeless, conditions the judge found Hurt “lacks the capacity to understand, much less comply with.” A psychologist’s evaluation in July 2024 found Hurt “lacks the capacity to appreciate the nature of the proceedings against her…or to participate rationally in her own defense.” For the past year, Hurt has been held in isolation at the Shelby County prison because of her threats of self-harm, according to court records. But her lawyer, public defender Bailey Brown, and her state guardian, Zachary Blasko, are working to get Hurt placed in a psychiatric hospital to stabilize her mental health, under the agreement reached with the judge. Brown, who visited Hurt in prison last week, told the judge Hurt is willing to accept treatment at a psychiatric hospital. “She is acutely aware she is not stable right now,” Brown said. Following treatment at the hospital, officials said they will work to find a suitable placement for Hurt. Shepherd said lining up a future placement is important because Hurt is scheduled to be released from prison in April 2025. Officials need to “get her into the right setting for treatment instead of being thrown out on the street,” he said. Blake Vogt, a lawyer for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Kentucky’s human services agency, said Hurt has been placed on a waiting list for its Supports for Community Living, in which individuals live in group settings with supervision. One complication: Hurt is now listed as a sex offender for her assault conviction in 2020 for grabbing a caregiver’s breast and genital area and making sexual threats. That plus her history of outbursts and aggressive behavior have made it hard to find a program that will accept her, officials said. Mental health advocates have said that while Kentucky jails and prisons too often are the default option for people with mental illness, Hurt’s combination of issues is a particularly difficult case. “We cannot make someone accept her,” Vogt told the judge Also involved in the case are the state Parole Board, the Corrections Department and Protection and Advocacy, or P&A, an independent watchdog agency that defends the rights of persons with disabilities. Heidi Schissler Lanham, P&A legal director, attended last week’s hearing and said her agency will continue to look out for Hurt’s welfare. The immediate goal is to get Hurt out of prison and into psychiatric treatment, Lanham said. “She said she wants out and she wants treatment,” Lanham said. “We want what she wants.” One option after Hurt’s release from a psychiatric hospital is Oakwood, a state facility in Somerset where residents live in cottages under supervision on a campus-like setting, Lanham said. It’s not clear on how soon Hurt could be released from prison. Shepherd, in an order filed Monday, directed her lawyer and state guardian to file court papers by Dec. 11 to begin the legal process to have Hurt evaluated and moved to a psychiatric facility. Brown, her lawyer noted at last week’s hearing that Hurt has spent nearly four years in prison. “At this point, we just need to find somewhere for her to go,” Brown said. The post Hospital spot sought for mentally ill Kentucky woman in prison isolation appeared first on The Lexington Times.