Mentally disordered offenders: criteria for commitment.

Plain English Breakdown

The official summary does not provide details on what happens when prisoners do not meet all criteria or how this change will affect current prisoners already committed for treatment.

Criteria for Committing Mentally Disordered Offenders

This law modifies the criteria needed to commit prisoners with severe mental health disorders to treatment by requiring a higher level of risk assessment and using a specific evaluation tool.

What This Bill Does

• Modifies existing requirements that mentally disordered offenders must be treated if they are considered a substantial danger to others.
• Requires mental health professionals to determine if an offender poses a threat to public safety before committing them for treatment.
• Adds the need for prisoners to undergo the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20) assessment.

Who It Names or Affects

• Prisoners with severe mental health disorders who are up for parole
• Mental health professionals and evaluators working in state hospitals

Terms To Know

Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20)

A tool used to assess the risk of violence by mentally disordered offenders.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a prisoner is found to be at risk but does not meet all criteria.
• It's unclear how this change will affect current prisoners already committed for treatment.

Official Summary Text

AB 1897, as amended, Haney.
Mentally disordered offenders: criteria for commitment.
Existing law requires that, as a condition of parole, a prisoner who has a severe mental health disorder be treated by the State Department of State Hospitals if the prisoner meets certain requirements, including, among others, that the person in charge of treating the prisoner and a practicing psychiatrist or psychologist from the State Department of State Hospitals have evaluated the prisoner and that a chief psychiatrist of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation certify to the Board of Parole Hearings that by reason of the prisoner’s severe mental health disorder, the prisoner represents a substantial danger of physical harm to others.
This bill would instead require that the above-described mental health professional opine that the prisoner represents a
threat of physical
harm to
substantial danger to the health and safety of
others. The bill would require that the prisoner undergo the Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, Version 3 assessment, as specified. The bill would make other conforming changes.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF