Existing law provides for state mental hospitals for the care, treatment, and education of the mentally disordered, including Napa State Hospital and Metropolitan State Hospital. These hospitals are under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Mental Health.

Existing law, prior to admission to Napa State Hospital or the Metropolitan State Hospital, requires the department to evaluate patients committed under specified sections of the Penal Code. Existing law requires a patient determined to be a high-security risk to be treated in the department’s most secure facilities, and other patients to be treated near the patient’s community, as specified.

This bill would delete these provisions governing evaluation and treatment, and instead require a risk evaluation, as specified, upon commitment to any state hospital, of a patient who is being committed pursuant to any provision of the Penal Code.