Brown budget sets $117 million for California incompetent-defendant treatment as the population grows by a third
The Los Angeles Times reported that the governor's new budget set aside $117 million to add treatment beds and county mental health programs for more than 800 people found incompetent to stand trial, a group that state officials said had grown 33% over three years as judges referred more defendants to treatment. As of December, 840 jail inmates were waiting for state hospital or other treatment space.
Much of the money would help the 15 counties with the most felony incompetency cases build diversion and community programs, with Los Angeles County slated for at least $15 million to treat up to 150 patients in community facilities. Sen. Jim Beall said funding alone would not fix a system he called a bottomless pit, and pointed to his bill to let judges divert mentally ill defendants for up to two years; the California Public Defenders Association described the three-year maximum commitment, unchanged since 1974, as outdated.
The story is an early, mainstream account of the funding-versus-reform argument that would shape California's competency policy through the 2020s.
Source: California’s mentally ill inmate population keeps growing. And state money isn’t enough to meet needs, lawmaker says — Los Angeles Times, by Jazmine Ulloa
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