BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2625|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2625
Author: Achadjian (R)
Amended: 4/24/14 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/10/14
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, De León, Knight, Liu, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mitchell
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/23/14
AYES: De León, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/8/14 (Consent) - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Defendants: competence
SOURCE : Department of State Hospitals
DIGEST : This bill specifies procedures relative to returning
to court a defendant committed to a state hospital or other
facility for treatment as incompetent to stand trial (IST) who
has not recovered competency, as specified.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.States that a person cannot be tried or adjudged to punishment
while he/she is mentally incompetent (IST - incompetent to
stand trial).
2.States that if the court has a doubt as to whether or not a
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defendant is IST, the court shall state that doubt on the
record and shall seek defense counsel's opinion as to the
defendant's competence.
3.Provides hearing procedures to determine whether the defendant
is mentally competent or not.
4.States that if the defendant is found IST, the matter shall be
suspended until the person becomes mentally competent.
5.Includes detailed procedures for review of orders for
involuntary anti-psychotic medication and to determine whether
a person committed as IST without a medication order should be
medicated.
This bill:
1.Changes the requirement that the medical director of the state
hospital or other treatment facility to which a defendant is
confined for treatment make a written report to the court and
county community program director concerning the defendant's
progress toward recovery of mental competence, from within 90
days of the order of commitment to within 90 days of
admission.
2.Requires the following actions and procedures where a progress
report concerning an IST defendant concludes that there is no
substantial likelihood that he/she will regain competence
within the foreseeable future:
A. The committing court, within 10 days of its receipt of
the report, shall order that the IST defendant be returned
to court for initiation of conservatorship proceedings.
B. The medical director of the state hospital or other
treatment facility to which a defendant is confined for
treatment to regain mental shall do the following:
Promptly notify and provide a copy of the report to
the defendant's attorney and the district attorney; and
Provide a separate notification, in compliance with
applicable privacy laws, to the committing county's
sheriff that transportation will be needed for the
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patient.
1.Requires that a defendant committed to a state hospital for
treatment to regain mental competency, but who has not
recovered competence, to be returned to the committing court
no later than 90 days before the expiration of the defendant's
term of commitment.
Comments
According to the author, "Currently, patients are taken into
Department of State Hospitals (DSH) custody in order to assist
in the patients' restoration of competency. IST is a program
DSH administers to get a patient to the point that they may
stand trial. Some patients are deemed as unable to regain
competency and are supposed to be sent back into the custody of
the committing county. Many counties end up not retrieving
their patients and those people remain at a State Hospital,
which costs the state approximately $200,000 per year, per
patient. AB 2625 simply establishes guidelines for getting the
patient back in possession of their county. First, the bill
requires the medical director of the state hospital to notify
the defense counsel and the district attorney of the committing
county if the inmate is unable to regain competence and that
they must be returned to the committing county within 10 days of
this notification. They must also notify the county's sheriff
that transportation for the patient is needed. Also, the bill
provides that, prior to the expiration of the three-year
statutory limit on being treated in the State Hospital, an IST
who has not recovered competence must be returned to their
committing county no later than 90 days prior to the expiration
of the three-year limit."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
No significant near-term state costs (General Fund) to the
Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to the extent IST patients
who cannot be restored to competency are replaced with IST
patients from the wait list and require comparable treatment,
custody, and housing costs.
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Future cost-savings (General Fund) to DSH once the IST wait
list is removed by ensuring that IST defendants who cannot be
restored to competency are returned to counties in a timely
manner, allowing DSH resources to be used more efficiently.
Potential ongoing cost savings to the courts (General Fund*)
due to fewer IST status conferences and court orders issued
under the more efficient process.
Potential minor state-reimbursable costs for medical directors
of local facilities to promptly notify defense counsel, the
district attorney, and county sheriff. These costs would
likely be more than offset by cost savings through reduced
lengths of stay of IST patients in county facilities.
Potential non-reimbursable local costs for increased
conservatorship proceedings upon order of the court.
*Trial Court Trust Fund
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/24/14)
Department of State Hospitals (source)
California Association of Psychiatric Technicians
California District Attorneys Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
Judicial Council of California
Los Angeles County Sheriff
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/8/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A.
Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Eggman, Gorell, Gray, Hall, Mansoor, V. Manuel
Pérez, Vacancy
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JG:nl 6/24/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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