If Scott Thorpe is an average patient at Atascadero State Hospital, he'll spend 79 days there before returning to Nevada County to face murder charges.

That's the average stay for patients deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial, said Dr. Thomas Cahill, who heads the program that helps patients facing criminal charges regain competency.

And if Thorpe's stay is typical, he'll receive medication and counseling, and staff will hold a mock trial to make sure he understands legal proceedings.

"Our job really is to prepare patients to proceed in a legal setting so the courts will determine what they will," Cahill said.

He outlined the standard procedure for patients sent there.

They first take a shower, get inspected for contagious diseases, and undergo a complete physical exam that includes X-rays.

A psychological evaluation is next, followed by a competency assessment to establish the patient's mental state. That helps staff design a treatment program.

Patients receive group or individual counseling, sometimes both.

Eventually, a mock trial is held with hospital staff acting as judges, lawyers and bailiffs.

"It's an important part of their treatment," Cahill said. "Sometimes they observe, but often they act out actions they would need to make in a courtroom setting."

The final step is deciding if the patient has regained competency.

"When we're satisfied with that final check, we send them back," Cahill said.

Nevada County Superior Court Judge John Darlington ruled that Thorpe understood his charges but couldn't rationally assist his lawyer, Public Defender Thomas Anderson.

The ruling reflected findings reached by Dr. Hadley Osran, an Atascadero psychiatrist who twice interviewed Thorpe and believes the alleged gunman's competency can be restored.

Two other doctors who interviewed Thorpe found he both didn't understand the charges and couldn't assist in his defense.

The hospital near San Luis Obispo is a locked facility with more than 1,000 patients. Cahill's program has 53 patients.

Many of the patients have paranoid schizophrenia, which doctors say could be Thorpe's mental illness, but others suffer from severe brain injuries. Many face serious charges, like murder or arson.

Cahill has worked at Atascadero 16 years, and he said competency is restored to "well over 95 percent" of patients. He said the average stay for patients was 79 days during the last quarter, Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

That was the same average for fiscal year 1999-2000. The previous year's average was 66 days.

Cahill has found that many patients enter the program in no hurry to face their criminal charges. That can lead to what he called "malingering," or faking that no progress is being made.

"We encourage our patients to follow through with the consequences of their actions to their logical conclusions," he said.

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