YOUNGSTOWN Girl held in killing is moved

Jackie Colon has been placed at a treatment facility in Oklahoma, officials said.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Seven months after a judge ordered her into a residential treatment facility, Jackie Colon has been moved out of the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.
Jackie, 15, is in a mental health facility in Oklahoma City, Okla., said Eva Burris, Mahoning County Juvenile Court administrator. She was moved there earlier this week.
"We're really glad that she's in a place where she can get some help," Burris said.
Jackie had been in the juvenile center since December, accused of throwing a 3-month-old baby out a second-floor window onto the cement driveway below, then going outside and stabbing the baby nearly 60 times.
Can't stand trial: In March, she was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was ordered into a residential treatment facility. After a year, she was to be re-evaluated for competency to stand trial.
Since then, local officials have been frustrated by their inability to find a facility that would take her. The crux of the problem is that there are no state-operated mental health facilities in Ohio, Burris said. A judge cannot order a private facility to accept Jackie.
Officials then had to look outside Ohio to find a facility that offers the treatment she needs and was willing to accept her. They thought they'd found one in Indiana in June, but that fell through. The facility agreed to take her, but state officials nixed it, Burris said.
Attempts to secure a facility in other states proved fruitless until the one in Oklahoma finally accepted her.
The problem: Jackie's problem is that she has a dual diagnosis -- she is both mentally retarded and mentally ill. That, in addition to her propensity for violent behavior, made private facilities reluctant to accept her, officials have said.
James Lowe, director of detention at the juvenile court, said Jackie will probably stay in Oklahoma for about a year and then be re-evaluated. A consortium of county mental health agencies will pay most of the $323 a day cost, with minimal assistance from the state, he said.
"Every time we have a child in this situation, we will have to go through this," Burris said. "There's something wrong with that."
She said changes are needed at the state level so there are either state-run facilities or judges can have authority to order private facilities to accept patients like Jackie.
bjackson@vindy.com