Prisons: involuntary medication.

Existing law provides that if a defendant in a criminal proceeding is found mentally incompetent, the trial or judgment shall be suspended until the person becomes mentally competent. Existing law provides that the court shall order that the mentally incompetent defendant be delivered by the sheriff to a state hospital for the care and treatment of the mentally disordered, as directed by the State Department of State Hospitals, or to any other available public or private treatment facility approved by the community program director that will promote the defendant's speedy restoration to mental competence, or placed on outpatient status as specified. Existing law further specifies commitment proceedings to include circumstances for the voluntary and involuntary administration of antipsychotic medication. Under existing law, if consent for antipsychotic medication is withdrawn or if the treating psychiatrist later determines that antipsychotic medication is medically necessary and appropriate, the treating psychiatrist is required to make efforts to obtain consent for that medication. Existing law provides that if the treating psychiatrist certifies that antipsychotic medication has become medically necessary and appropriate for the defendant, antipsychotic medication may be administered to the defendant for a maximum of 21 days, provided, however, that, within 72 hours of the certification, the defendant is provided a medication review hearing before an administrative law judge to be conducted at the facility where the defendant is receiving treatment. This bill would authorize the treating psychiatrist, if he or she determines that there is a need, based on preserving rapport with the patient or preventing harm, to request that the facility medical director designate another psychiatrist to act in the place of the treating psychiatrist for purposes of seeking an order for involuntary medication. If the medical director of the facility designates another psychiatrist to act, this bill would require the treating psychiatrist to brief the acting psychiatrist of the relevant facts of the case and would require the acting psychiatrist to examine the patient prior to the hearing.