Fueled by racism, James Lamb Jr. broke into the office at the Hub Motel in Redmond on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and went straight for Meena Puri.

The Eugene man grabbed Puri by the hair, shook her, hit her and kicked her as she fell to the ground. The attack left Puri — a 70-year-old Indian immigrant who had spent her life in Central Oregon — hospitalized for weeks with a fractured neck, cheekbone and shoulder. Lamb pleaded guilty except for insanity and was sentenced to 20 years in the Oregon State Hospital for the felony hate crime.

Less than a day before the attack, there was an opportunity to keep the 53-year-old Lamb off the street. He had been interviewed by a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office deputy who took him to St. Charles Bend. Hospital staff provided Lamb with medication, deemed him stable and then released him.

Under Oregon’s civil commitment statute, the hospital couldn’t keep Lamb because he did not behave in a threatening manner or was an obvious danger to himself.

Legal experts say there are many more people like Lamb, people experiencing extreme mental illnesses, who are not being committed to treatment centers and are instead being released. It’s a challenge in Deschutes County, where officials are facing an influx of people experiencing mental illness.

“This crime should never have happened,” said Joel Wirtz, the executive director of the public defense nonprofit Deschutes Defenders, and Lamb’s attorney. “The statute has to be changed.”

Often, a doctor initially assesses whether a person is dangerous and should be committed to a facility for long term treatment. If that’s necessary, then the person is placed on a five-day hold at a hospital. If the case receives a hearing, a judge decides whether treatment is required.

From 2020 through 2022, the number of civil commitment cases filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court increased more than 87%, from 221 to 414.

Last year, the state sought to hold people for treatment in roughly 5% of these cases, according to data from the Deschutes County Courthouse. That’s lower than two years before, however, when it was 9%.

John E. Laherty, Deschutes County’s senior assistant legal counsel, said this percentage is low because most defendants voluntarily agree to receive treatment, are placed in a 14-day diversion program, their mental health improves or they are determined to not meet legal criteria for civil commitment.

But some officials argue Oregon’s bar for civil commitment remains too high, leaving people with severe mental illness out in a community with a meager supply of housing and other support services, despite red flags suggesting they might harm themselves or others.

“Oregon needs to revamp its civil commitment statutes,” said Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Alison Emerson. “A lot of these people have been involved in behavioral health for a long period of time, but under the civil commitment statute, you basically have to be homicidal or suicidal to be civilly committed.”

The situation has generated discussions about whether the government should have greater authority to commit people to facilities for psychiatric help in order to ensure public safety, or if this would infringe upon people’s rights.

While Lamb’s case is extreme, interviews suggest it’s not an anomaly. Assaults, car thefts, threats and other crimes have involved people who couldn’t be involuntarily committed and had recently been released from the hospital, authorities say.

Officials say they are left waiting until people with a mental illness commit crimes so they can require that they receive extensive treatment.

“Sometimes you’re sitting there watching it because they don’t meet the criteria for us to hold them against their will,” said Evan Namkung, the Intensive Forensic Services Supervisor for Deschutes County Behavioral Health.

Much of the time, the crimes that end up occurring are less serious in nature, including disorderly conduct, trespassing, public intoxication, disturbance or petty theft, said Wirtz, Lamb’s attorney. But they still can result in someone going to jail. Authorities praised Deschutes County jail staffers for their efforts at helping people who struggle with mental illness, but agreed the jail is not the optimal place for treatment.

“Now, (defendants) are in solitary confinement, not getting proper medication, because they’re in jail and not in a hospital,” said Wirtz. He added that, for his mentally ill clients who end up in jail: “I’ve seen horrible things. People being naked, throwing their excrement. Why? Because instead of putting them in the hospital, we put them in jail.”

Officials say the inability to commit defendants involuntarily could be driving an increase in cases involving people who are deemed mentally unfit to aid in their own defense. Since 2021, those cases have more than doubled, according to Deschutes County Circuit Court data.

For those ordered into long term treatment, there is a “crisis of resources,” including a lack of beds and inpatient facilities, said John Laherty, legal counsel with Deschutes County. In all, there are 22 beds at secure psychiatric treatment facilities in the county, he said.

“That can be frustrating because, when the state commits someone, there’s an implied promise that they’ll receive the help they need,” said Laherty, who added: “There needs to be more beds.”

These compounding challenges can be grueling for the people caught in the middle, officials say.

Emerson, the Deschutes County judge, presides over a special docket that includes these cases. She described one woman with severe mental illness who had been committed multiple times before she was deemed unable to aid in her defense. She went to the Oregon State Hospital, where she spent the maximum amount of time at the hospital as she could.

She was released back to Deschutes County. But at that point, she was deemed stable enough that she didn’t qualify for civil commitment but not stable enough to move forward on her criminal case.

“I feel for her, because I don’t think it sets her up to do well in the community either,” Emerson said.

Wirtz says the Oregon Legislature needs to act now by giving the civil commitment statute a broader definition and increasing the number of adult foster care homes or other types of supportive housing for the mentally ill, with medical and social workers on site.

“They cannot wait,” he said of the Legislature. “People are going to continue to be hurt unnecessarily.”