At its core, competency to stand trial is a safeguard; protecting the rights of the defendant and the integrity of the legal process. This standard is laudable, but has also been subject to inconsistent framing across individual cases and jurisdictions, and has not adapted to the needs of the mentally ill nor the demands of legal and mental health systems. Rather than functioning as a brief pause for treatment, the restoration process now routinely subjects mentally ill defendants to prolonged jail confinement in environs that actively erode the capacities they are meant to restore.