BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2625| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 2625 Author: Achadjian (R) Amended: 8/20/14 in Senate 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. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/20/14 add double-jointing language with AB 2186 (Lowenthal) and SB 1412 (Nielsen). ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1.States that a person cannot be tried or adjudged to punishment while he/she is mentally incompetent (IST - incompetent to CONTINUED AB 2625 Page 2 stand trial). 2.States that if the court has a doubt as to whether or not a 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 CONTINUED AB 2625 Page 3 Provide a separate notification, in compliance with applicable privacy laws, to the committing county's sheriff that transportation will be needed for the 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. 2.Contains double-jointing language with AB 2186 (Lowenthal) and SB 1412 (Nielsen). 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: CONTINUED AB 2625 Page 4 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. 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 8/21/14) 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, CONTINUED AB 2625 Page 5 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 JG:nl 8/21/14 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED