Competency Restoration Observatory
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California's IST placement waitlist, from the public record

A California state-court mandate (not a federal decree) sets a 28-day placement standard for people found Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST). This page tracks what's publicly reported — irregularly, not on a monthly cadence.

Built and maintained by Sudhanshu Rai, an independent researcher; not affiliated with any court, agency, or party. Descriptive measurement only — no causal claims. Not legal advice — nothing here states your legal rights or deadlines in any individual case, or reaches a conclusion about any party's compliance, liability, or wrongdoing; consult a licensed attorney about a specific matter.

Governing order: a STATE court mandate, not a federal consent decree. Unlike Washington, Oregon, or Colorado, California's binding standard comes from Stiavetti v. Clendenin, a California state-court case, with a final 28-day admission standard that took effect March 2025. This distinction is easy to get wrong, and matters — there is no federal injunction governing California's IST placement timelines.
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California27 rows · 9 columns · 2019-06–2026-05
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IST pending placement, 2026-05
256people
Individuals found Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST) awaiting placement, most recent reading.
Source: may2026-27.pdf — page.59 ↗
Peak on record, 2022-01
1953people
Latest reading is 87% below this peak.
Source: may2026-27.pdf — page.15 ↗
Reporting cadence
27readings
4 from annual fiscal-year budget tables, 23 from irregular budget-prose mentions — not a regular monthly series like Washington's or Oregon's. Treat gaps between points as genuinely unmeasured periods, not zero-change periods.
Irregular cadence — not comparable to other states' freshness

IST pending placement over time

2019-06–2026-05, 27 readings total. Point spacing is genuinely uneven — see the KPI note above for why.

0500100015002019-06: 849 (annual fy table) — may2024-25.pdf — Table 2, page.1252020-02: 850 (prose snapshot) — may2025-26.pdf — page.662020-03: 869 (prose snapshot) — gov2023-24.pdf — page.152020-05: 1144 (prose snapshot) — gov2023-24.pdf — page.152020-06: 1212 (annual fy table) — may2025-26.pdf — Table 2, page.1272021-06: 1454 (annual fy table) — may2026-27.pdf — Table 2, page.1252022-01: 1953 (prose snapshot) — may2026-27.pdf — page.152022-02: 1951 (prose snapshot) — may2022-23.pdf — page.152022-06: 1779 (annual fy table) — may2026-27.pdf — Table 2, page.1252022-07: 1718 (prose snapshot) — may2024-25.pdf — page.1252022-08: 1737 (prose snapshot) — gov2023-24.pdf — page.142022-12: 1473 (prose snapshot) — gov2023-24.pdf — page.912023-04: 804 (prose snapshot) — may2023-24.pdf — page.912023-06: 894 (prose snapshot) — may2024-25.pdf — page.1252023-07: 910 (prose snapshot) — may2025-26.pdf — page.1272023-11: 549 (prose snapshot) — gov2024-25.pdf — page.172024-01: 501 (prose snapshot) — gov2024-25.pdf — page.692024-05: 397 (prose snapshot) — may2024-25.pdf — page.142024-06: 425 (prose snapshot) — may2025-26.pdf — page.1272024-07: 383 (prose snapshot) — may2026-27.pdf — page.1252024-09: 384 (prose snapshot) — may2025-26.pdf — page.1272025-01: 359 (prose snapshot) — gov2025-26.pdf — page.182025-05: 278 (prose snapshot) — may2025-26.pdf — page.672025-06: 287 (prose snapshot) — may2026-27.pdf — page.1252025-08: 277 (prose snapshot) — may2026-27.pdf — page.1252026-01: 275 (prose snapshot) — gov2026-27.pdf — page.502026-05: 256 (prose snapshot) — may2026-27.pdf — page.592019-062022-012023-062024-092026-05
Status

Data quality and reporting limitations

California's public reporting on this metric is genuinely less frequent and less regular than Washington's or Oregon's — readings come from annual budget documents (a fiscal-year-end snapshot) and occasional mentions in budget narrative prose, not a dedicated monthly monitor report. The chart below should be read as sparse, irregularly-spaced snapshots, not a smooth monthly trend; large gaps between points reflect a genuine absence of published data for that window, not a flat/unchanged period.
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California27 rows · 9 columns · 2019-06–2026-05
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Cite this dataset

Competency Restoration Observatory (2026). California IST pending-placement series [dataset]. competencyrestoration.org · data current through 2026-05 · page generated August 2026 · concept DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21436450 (always resolves to the latest dataset version — a version-pinned DOI matching this exact data window follows at the next Zenodo release).

Every figure regenerates from the public source reports by code — fully reproducible. The Zenodo deposit already includes real, MIT-licensed extraction code for the frozen Washington/Oregon study (an extraction pipeline plus its own verification gate) — but this dashboard's own full 5-state codebase (adapted from that study's code, plus Colorado, Texas, and California from scratch) is a separate, not-yet-public repository. A dedicated "Build & Replicate" walkthrough page and that public release are both planned but not yet published.

Data, code & contact

Open dataset + WA/OR code (Zenodo) Full dashboard code (public release planned) Email the maintainer Subscribe to corrections (RSS)

Researchers, clinicians, monitors, and reporters welcome — especially if you know of more recent source reports for this state. Every correction to an already-published number is logged on the Changelog page and in this RSS feed — nothing changes silently.