Amended in Assembly May 24, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 10, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 1, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1340

Introduced by Assembly Member Achadjian

February 22, 2013

An act to add Sections 4142 and 4143 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to mental health.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1340, as amended, Achadjian. State Hospital Employees Act.

Existing law establishes state hospitals for the care, treatment, and education of mentally disordered persons. These hospitals are under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals, which is authorized by existing law to adopt regulations regarding the conduct and management of these facilities. Existing law requires each state hospital to develop an incident reporting procedure that can be used to, at a minimum, develop reports of patient assaults on employees and assist the hospital in identifying risks of patient assaults on employees.

This bill begin insert , as of July 1, 2015, and subject to available funding, end insert would require each state hospital begin delete , beginning July 1, 2015, end delete to establish and maintain an enhanced treatment unit as part of its begin delete facilities. The bill end delete begin insert facilities and end insert would also require any case of assault by a patient of a state hospital, as specified, to be immediately referred to the local district attorney, and if, after the referral, the patient is found guilty of a misdemeanor or a felony assault, the local district attorney declines to prosecute, or the patient is found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity, the bill would require the patient to be placed in the enhanced treatment unit of the hospital until the patient is deemed safe to return to the regular population of the hospital.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

This act may be known and cited as the State
Hospital Employees Act.

SEC. 2.  

Section 4142 is added to the Welfare and Institutions
Code, to read:

4142.  

Commencing July 1, 2015, begin insert and subject to available
funding, end insert each state hospital shall establish and maintain an
enhanced treatment unit as part of its facilities for the placement
of patients described in Section 4143. The hospital administrator
of each state hospital shall establish procedures to provide an
increased level of security for the enhanced treatment unit.

SEC. 3.  

Section 4143 is added to the Welfare and Institutions
Code, to read:

4143.  

(a)  begin delete Any end delete begin insert Subject to available funding, any end insert case of assault
by a patient of a state hospital that causes injury to or illness of,
or has the potential to cause future illness of, a state hospital
employee or another patient of the state hospital rising to the level
of a misdemeanor or felony shall be immediately referred to the
local district attorney.

(b) If, after referral to the local district attorney, the patient is
found guilty of misdemeanor or felony assault, the local district
attorney declines prosecution, the patient is found to be
incompetent to stand trial, or the patient is found not guilty by
reason of insanity, the patient shall be placed in the enhanced
treatment unit of the state hospital until the patient is deemed safe
to return to the regular population of the hospital.

(c) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2015.