Adult Competency to Stand Trial

Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning the Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems. The bill reforms and clarifies the criminal competency to proceed process. The bill provides necessary parties with access to information related to the defendant's claim of incompetency to proceed. The bill requires the department of human services to search prior competency evaluations in its possession when the court orders a competency evaluation or the court finds the defendant incompetent to proceed and provide any evaluations to the court. The bill adds to the information that is included in a competency report. The bill delineates a court's options when it finds that a defendant is incompetent to proceed. The bill directs when competency services may be provided on an outpatient basis. The bill sets forth the circumstances when a court has to dismiss the defendant's case based on the highest level of charge against the defendant and how long the defendant has been waiting for restoration services.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)