Maryland law sets a 10-business-day deadline for hospital admission of incompetent defendants and lets courts sanction the state
Chapter 189 amends the state's criminal procedure code so that when a court finds a defendant incompetent and dangerous, it must order commitment, and the health department must admit the defendant to a designated facility as soon as possible and no later than 10 business days after it receives the order. It also directs the department to tell the court when the defendant is admitted.
If the deadline is missed, the court may impose any sanction reasonably designed to compel compliance, including making the department reimburse the detention facility for the cost of holding the person. The law's preamble describes the delay crisis as long foreseeable and well documented, tied to shrinking state hospital capacity, and cites the Court of Appeals' August 2017 Powell decision as the reason the legislature needed to give courts authority to set and enforce deadlines. The bill was approved on April 24, 2018 and took effect October 1, 2018.
The statute remains the legal basis for the fines judges have imposed on the department in later years.
Source: Maryland Department of Health - Defendants Found Incompetent to Stand Trial or Not Criminally Responsible - Commitment (Senate Bill 233, Chapter 189) — Maryland General Assembly
← Back to the map