In extreme circumstances, the court can impose monetary sanctions on the state, though Heithecker said this is usually a last resort. Because these are contempt proceedings against the state, an attorney with the hospital appears before the court to provide reasoning, sometimes in the form of showing the waitlist and how the person has moved up. While filing a writ of habeas corpus is an extreme scenario, Heithecker said more often the court order the state hospital to explain why the transfer of the inmate hasn’t happened. “Sometimes the folks are just waiting in jail to begin the process of having their legal competency restored.” “Those beds at the state are full, and we’re having folks languish in jail waiting to be transported to the state hospital,” Heithecker said. Butte County puts a higher proportion of its felons behind bars than almost every other county in California.(Bill Husa/Staff File Photo) An officer walks down a hallway past inmates during a tour of the Butte County Jail in Oroville on Dec. When the state facility is full, the defendants are placed on a waiting list. At that point, criminal proceedings are put on hold.” Complications “A doctor is appointed and then evaluates the client. “The lawyer expresses a doubt that their client is fit to stand trial,” Heithecker said. Incompetency to stand trial, Heithecker said, can be doubted when it seems the defendant does not understand the court preceding. Heithecker is the executive director of the Butte County Public Defender Consortium and has been a public defender since 1998. The plea of not guilty by reason of insanity refers to the defendant’s inability to know right from wrong or not understand the nature of their actions, said Phil Heithecker. “(The Murphy Conservatorship) is reserved for the dangerous of the dangerous,” Ramsey said. The person is taken to a locked facility for a long-term commitment. When time runs outĪfter the two years in a state facility are up and the defendant is not declared competent, the case is dropped and there are two routes that can be taken based on the person’s potential threat level to the public.Īccording to Ramsey, if the person is not considered a threat to others, a conservatorship is granted and the person is transported to a long-term mental health facility.Īlternatively, in extreme situations of violence and risk, a variation of this process known as the Murphy Conservatorship takes place. In September 2018, California Senate Bill 1187 was passed which reduced the time to two years. 1, 2019, the time frame a person had to be declared competent to stand trial was three years for a felony charge. During this process, if the person’s competency is restored, they will return to the county to be tried.īefore Jan. Those in rehabilitation have a legally specified length of time to be deemed by a doctor as fit to stand trial. Once the defendant begins receiving treatment, a clock starts ticking. These are usually in extreme circumstances. Ramsey said the process can sometimes take so long that the defense attorney in charge of the case will file a writ of habeas corpus to the court, spurring representatives from the state hospital to be questioned by a judge regarding the wait. During this time, they are not getting any treatment.”‘ “They wait months and months for a bed to open up so they can get the person in the hospital. “It’s a well-known frustration,” Ramsey said. The default, Ramsey said, is to send them to a state facility, though this presents a problem as most facilities have long wait lists and the defendants end up sitting in the local jail, waiting for beds to open up. (Bill Husa - Mercury-Register file photo) Ramsey said Butte County Behavioral Health Services checks to see if there is a local facility that will suffice, though that is often not the case. Those who are found incompetent to stand trial begin the rehabilitation process. Once this happens, the defendant is analyzed by a psychiatric specialist who submits a report to the judge, who has the ultimate decision on whether the process of restoring competency through behavioral health services will begin.Īccording to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, in about half of these cases, the defendant is declared competent and the trial continues.
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