Bill Text: CT SB01027 | 2015 | General Assembly | Introduced

Connecticut Senate Bill 1027 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: An Act Concerning Management Of Individuals Committed To The Psychiatric Security Review Board.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-27 - Public Hearing 04/01 [SB01027 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2015-SB01027-Introduced.html


General Assembly		*Raised Bill No. 1027*
*January Session, 2015*		LCO No. 4319
		04319_______JUD
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)

AN ACT CONCERNING MANAGEMENT OF INDIVIDUALS COMMITTED TO THE PSYCHIATRIC SECURITY REVIEW BOARD.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 17a-580 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage):

As used in this section, sections 17a-581 to [17a-602] 17a-603, inclusive, and [this] section 2 of this act:

(1) "Acquittee" means any person found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect pursuant to section 53a-13;

(2) "Board" means the Psychiatric Security Review Board established pursuant to section 17a-581;

(3) "Conditional release" means release [subject] of the acquittee from a hospital for psychiatric disabilities to the jurisdiction of the board for supervision and treatment [on an outpatient basis] and includes, but is not limited to, the monitoring of mental and physical health treatment;

(4) "Court" means the Superior Court;

(5) "Danger to himself or others" includes danger to the property of others;

(6) ["Hospital for mental illness"] "Hospital for psychiatric disabilities" means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, house or place in which a person with psychiatric disabilities or drug-dependent person is received or detained as a patient, but does not include any correctional institution of the state;

(7) ["Mental illness"] "Psychiatric disability" includes any mental illness in a state of remission when the illness may, with reasonable medical probability, become active. "Psychiatric disability" does not include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct;

(8) "Intellectual disability" has the same meaning as provided in section 1-1g;

(9) "Person who should be conditionally released" means an acquittee who has psychiatric disabilities or has intellectual disability to the extent that his final discharge would constitute a danger to himself or others but who can be adequately controlled with available supervision and treatment on conditional release;

(10) "Person who should be confined" means an acquittee who has psychiatric disabilities or has intellectual disability to the extent that such acquittee's discharge or conditional release would constitute a danger to the acquittee or others and who cannot be adequately controlled with available supervision and treatment on conditional release;

(11) "Person who should be discharged" means an acquittee who does not have psychiatric disabilities or does not have intellectual disability to the extent that such acquittee's discharge would constitute a danger to the acquittee or others;

(12) "Psychiatrist" means a physician specializing in psychiatry and licensed under the provisions of sections 20-9 to 20-12, inclusive;

(13) "Psychologist" means a clinical psychologist licensed under the provisions of sections 20-186 to 20-195, inclusive;

(14) "State's attorney" means the state's attorney for the judicial district wherein the acquittee was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect pursuant to section 53a-13;

(15) "Superintendent" means any person, body of persons or corporation, or the designee of any such person, body of persons or corporation, which has the immediate supervision, management and control of a hospital for [mental illness] psychiatric disabilities and the patients therein.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) If an acquittee who is in the custody of the Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services under the jurisdiction of the board and confined in a hospital for psychiatric disabilities has an outstanding term of imprisonment, the acquittee may be conditionally released to the Commissioner of Correction until such outstanding term of imprisonment has been completed.

(b) If an acquittee, while in the in the custody of the Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services under the jurisdiction of the board and confined in a hospital for psychiatric disabilities is arraigned on charges involving a felony offense or a class A misdemeanor under section 53a-61, 53a-61a, 53a-62, 53a-63 or 53a-64cc of the general statutes, the court may impose financial and nonfinancial conditions of release pursuant to section 54-64a of the general statutes and order such acquittee transferred to the custody of the Commissioner of Correction for any period of pretrial detention when the crimes charged, or facts and circumstances brought to the attention of the court, suggest that the acquittee may pose a significant risk to the safety of hospital patients, staff and visitors. The Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services, in consultation with the Commissioner of Correction, may submit and the court shall consider a report on the degree to which the acquittee presents a significant safety or security risk to hospital patients, staff and visitors.

(c) If an acquittee is convicted of a criminal offense and sentenced to the custody of the Commissioner of Correction, the acquittee shall be transferred to the Department of Correction to serve such sentence. Prior to the conclusion of such sentence, the board shall hold a hearing pursuant to section 17a-585 of the general statutes and take action pursuant to section 17a-584 of the general statutes.


This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	from passage	17a-580
Sec. 2	from passage	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To: (1) Clarify the definition of "conditional release", (2) define "psychiatric disability" in a manner that is consistent with section 53a-13 of the general statutes, (3) allow the Department of Correction to monitor an acquittee who is released under a "conditional release", and (4) permit the transfer of an acquittee who is charged with a criminal offense while in the custody of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to the Department of Correction, if appropriate.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]