Incompetence to stand trial: conservatorship: treatment.

(1) Existing law prohibits a person from being tried or adjudged to punishment while that person is mentally incompetent. Existing law establishes a process by which a defendant's mental competency is evaluated and by which the defendant receives treatment with the goal of returning the defendant to competency. Existing law allows a mentally incompetent defendant to be committed to the State Department of State Hospitals or other public or private treatment facility for a period of 3 years or to a period of commitment equal to the maximum term of imprisonment provided by law for the most serious offense charged, whichever is shorter, and requires the defendant to be returned to the committing court after his or her maximum period of commitment. If the defendant is gravely disabled upon his or her return to the committing court, existing law requires the court to order the conservatorship investigator of the county to initiate conservatorship proceedings on the basis that the indictment or information pending against the person charges a felony involving death, great bodily harm, or a serious threat to the physical well-being of another person. This bill would also allow the initiation of conservatorship proceedings on the basis that person is gravely disabled due to a condition in which the person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is unable to provide for his or her basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter. (2) Existing law requires, if the action is on a complaint charging a felony, that a proceeding to determine mental competence be held prior to the filing of an information unless counsel for the defendant requests a preliminary examination. Existing law requires an indictment or information to be pending against the defendant at the time a conservatorship is initiated. This bill would allow, if the action is on a complaint charging a felony involving death, great bodily harm, or a serious threat to the physical well-being of another person, the prosecuting attorney, at any time before or after a defendant is determined incompetent to stand trial, to request a determination of probable cause to believe the defendant committed the offense or offenses alleged in the complaint, solely for the purpose of establishing that the defendant is gravely disabled, and would grant the defendant a preliminary hearing after restoration of competency. The bill would define "gravely disabled" for these purposes as a condition where the person has been found mentally incompetent by specified procedures, and certain other facts exist, including, among others, that the person is charged with a felony involving death, great bodily harm, or a serious threat to the physical well-being of another person. The bill would allow for the initiation of a conservatorship upon a criminal complaint if there has been a finding of probable cause on the complaint. The bill would provide that a proceeding to determine mental competence, or in the alternative, a request for a preliminary examination, as described above, would not preclude a determination of probable cause as described above, and vice versa.