Ohio fiscal analysis: bill would bar inpatient competency evaluations at state hospitals for nonviolent misdemeanor defendants and fund limited guardians
The Legislative Service Commission's fiscal note for Senate Bill 58 of the 133rd General Assembly describes a bill that changes where Ohio courts can send defendants for competency evaluations. State facilities run by the mental health and addiction services and developmental disabilities departments would no longer conduct inpatient evaluations of people charged with nonviolent misdemeanors unless immediate hospitalization is necessary; the analysis notes most evaluations are already done in the community or jail through the state's ten community forensic psychiatry centers.
The note says about 15 defendants met that description in 2018, at an estimated cost of roughly $174,000, and that courts recover evaluation costs from defendants who are not indigent. The bill would also let county alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services boards receive court-ordered placements for defendants needing treatment or continuing evaluation, and it appropriates $250,000 in each of fiscal 2020 and 2021 for a new guardianship line item to pay for limited guardians who make treatment decisions. The note says the overall fiscal effect is uncertain and depends on whether costs at private facilities run higher or lower than at the state facilities the bill would bar.
Source: Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement — Ohio Legislative Service Commission
← Back to the map