American Bar Association issues revised criminal justice mental health standards, including a competence-to-proceed section
The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards are model standards for courts, lawyers and legislators. The fourth edition was adopted in August 2016, replacing the original standards adopted in 1984, and the document notes that commentary was revised in 2017 and 2024.
The competence-to-proceed part runs through who may raise the question, how courts order and receive examinations, the evidence and hearing process, dispositional choices, and periodic redetermination. For defendants who are unrestorably incompetent, the commentary says the earlier policy of trying them has been replaced by release or hospitalization in a forensic facility.
As a model-policy document rather than law, it matters to the competency system because states and courts look to it when drafting limits on restoration and when deciding what happens to defendants who do not regain competence.
Source: THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE MENTAL HEALTH STANDARDS — American Bar Association
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