Another update: I have previously written about Carolyn Barnes, who was accused of shooting at a census worker, ruled incompetent to stand trial, sent to the state hospital, and continued to practice law while maintaining that she was sane.
Well, she found a judge who agrees with her. Yesterday, she was ruled competent to stand trial. The judge ordered her release from the state hospital to the county jail, and set an early April trial date. He also set a bail of $30,000 and:
The “no remaining assets” part is also worth a little focus here. You see, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the people who run the state hospitals, tries to
According to the Statesman, Ms. Barnes was being charged $509 a day, and has been invoiced for “more than $100,000”.
If I were to fly out to New York City next Tuesday and stay for a week, I could get what seems like a pretty nice hotel room for around $350 a night – possibly less than $300. Subtracting that from the $509 a day Ms. Barnes was being billed leaves me with $150 to $200 a day for food, which even by NYC standards sounds fair: get a couple of bagels with lox spread for breakfast, maybe grab a dog from a street vendor for lunch, and you’ve still got enough money to eat someplace decent to fairly nice for dinner. Of course, I’m not including the cost of medication in my calculations, but there’s also no mention in the articles I’ve seen that Ms. Barnes was getting medication, or that medication was included in her bill.
You could live at Disney World — in one of the better hotels, with tickets to the parks and meals — for less than $509 a day.