Healthcare
Mentally disordered offenders: criteria for commitment
AB 1897 requires mental-health evaluators to assess specified current-risk factors, including disorder-related violence, before finding a prisoner dangerous enough for involuntary treatment as a condition of parole.
The law standardizes the factors psychiatrists and psychologists must weigh when deciding whether a prisoner with a severe mental health disorder presents a substantial danger of physical harm to others. It also permits some court challenges to be heard in the county where the person was committed to state prison.
What the law does
- Requires evaluators to consider the prisoner’s disorder-related violence history, current mental status, recent behavior and treatment response, present capacity to cause harm, and other clinically relevant risk factors.
- Allows a court hearing challenging a mentally disordered offender determination to occur in the county of commitment to state prison when the petitioner, prosecutor, and defense counsel stipulate.
- Maintains the existing requirement that the danger finding be tied to the prisoner’s severe mental health disorder.
Who it affects
- Prisoners and parolees considered for involuntary mental health treatment as a condition of parole.
- Psychiatrists and psychologists evaluating prisoners for mentally disordered offender treatment.
- The Board of Parole Hearings, prosecutors, defense counsel, and courts handling commitment challenges.