HONOLULU -- A federal judge on Thursday threatened to put the state's Mental Health Services under federal oversight. That's after a blistering report from a federal monitor who said the state is failing to care for discharged mental patients, some of whom have died or disappeared.

A report by a federal monitor blamed the state for overcrowding at the state mental hospital in Kaneohe because it has failed to develop basic community mental health services. The report pointed to the death of one former mental patient just three days after being discharged from a state facility. It also spotlighted another case in which a former patient was homeless within two weeks of being discharged and a third patient who couldn't be found three months after being discharged from the state hospital.

"We have never held out or said that we are doing everything perfectly, and we have accomplished everything. We have said that there's more work to be done, but that we are moving forward," state health director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said.

Federal Judge David Ezra said, "we see backsliding on all fronts," and found the state's progress in providing services for discharged mental patients "woefully lacking."

Ezra said that if the situation does not "dramatically improve" by April 30, (comma) he will consider taking the state's mental health programs away from the state Department of Health and putting them under federal control.

"We are disappointed that the court did not acknowledge the many successes that we have had in the last several months," Fukino said.

The state points to an 80 percent increase in community housing for discharged patients in the last three years and adding crisis services on all islands for the first time last year.

State officials said the population at the state hospital is exploding partly because crystal methamphetamine addicts who suffer from prolonged mental illness and don't recover quickly from brain damage caused by the drug.