WA families are using 'Joel's Law' for involuntary commitments more than ever
Tatiana Leone never leaves her Bremerton apartment without a reusable grocery bag filled with documents detailing her son’s history of mental illness. She doesn’t know when she will run into her son, who lives unhoused in Seattle, and she wants to be prepared if he’s in a crisis.
She’s used the pile of documents — including records of his behavioral health history, jail stints and hospital stays — once before. In 2020, she successfully asked a Pierce County judge to involuntarily detain her son, whom she asked not to be named to respect his privacy, under Washington’s Joel’s Law. Leone, like others caring for loved ones experiencing acute mental illness, had spent many painstaking years trying to get her son help, only to find a fractured and complex mental health system that did little more than send her son to jail. She felt like she had exhausted all other options.
“It’s a gut-wrenching process because you don’t want to alienate your loved one and make them fear you or that the world is against them because they’re already thinking that in some cases,” Leone said. “You’re just trying to help.”
Joel’s Law, which passed the state Legislature with overwhelming support in 2015, was designed to provide a lifeline for parents like Leone who wished to directly petition the judicial system to get their loved one into treatment. Typically, designated crisis responders — mental health professionals who act as a bridge between the medical system and the courts — are the ones to recommend involuntary detainment if they believe someone’s behavioral health conditions meet the state’s legal criteria.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/03/30/wa-families-are-using-joels-law-for-involuntary-commitments-more-than-ever/