Bill Text: CA AB1861 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mental health: involuntary commitment.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - From printer. May be heard in committee February 7. [AB1861 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB1861-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1861

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Introduced by Assembly Member Santiago

January 07, 2020

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An act to amend Section 5150.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to mental health.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1861, as introduced, Santiago. Mental health: involuntary commitment.

Under existing law, if a person, as a result of a mental disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or is gravely disabled, the person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services as a facility for 72-hour treatment and evaluation. Existing law prohibits specified mental health personnel from taking certain actions that interfere with a peace officer seeking to transport, or having transported, a person detained for 72-hour treatment and evaluation.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 5150.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:

5150.1.

 No (a) A peace officer seeking to transport, or having transported, a person to a designated facility for assessment under Section 5150, shall not be instructed by mental health personnel to take the person to, or keep the person at, a jail solely because of the unavailability of an acute bed, nor bed. Nor shall the peace officer be forbidden to transport the person directly to the designated facility. No A mental health employee from any county, state, city, or any private agency providing Short-Doyle psychiatric emergency services shall not interfere with a peace officer performing duties under Section 5150 by preventing the peace officer from entering a designated facility with the person to be assessed, nor shall any an employee of such an agency require the peace officer to remove the person without assessment as a condition of allowing the peace officer to depart.

“Peace officer”

(b)  “Peace officer ” for the purposes of this section also means includes a jailer seeking to transport or transporting a person in custody to a designated facility for assessment consistent with Section 4011.6 or 4011.8 of the Penal Code and Section 5150.