A Baxter County Detention Center inmate has been transferred to the Arkansas State Hospital. According to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, 20-year-old Shawn Eaton was transported by deputies Monday morning nearly five months after being declared not fit to proceed in the cases filed against him.
Eaton was charged with a number of offenses last year having to do with inappropriate contact with young girls. Lack of space in mental health treatment facilities in the state had resulted in Eaton sitting in the Baxter County jail since December.
According to court records, in a guardianship case filed in late 2013, Eaton was described by a medical doctor as bipolar and a guardian was appointed due to his condition.
Local Officials, including Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, say they had done all they could do to get the transfer accomplished.
Circuit Judge Gordon Webb wrote a letter to officials at the Arkansas Department of Human Services in late April in which he advised them Eaton remained locked up in the local jail.
In the letter, Judge Webb wrote the court had committed Eaton to the custody of the Department of Human Services. Judge Webb requested that DHS take immediate steps to have Eaton committed.
The court had found Eaton to be a danger to himself and others, and he could not be treated on an out-patient basis in the local community. He ended his letter by commenting, the county jail is not a treatment facility and not an appropriate place for him to reside.
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