The California Senate Public Safety Committee took a significant step in restoring balance in the justice system by advancing Assembly Bill 46.<\/p>\n
Authored by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, AB 46 would restore judicial discretion and give prosecutors a voice within the state\u2019s Mental Health Diversion (MHD) program.<\/p>\n
Under current law, individuals charged with serious and violent offenses\u2014including attempted premeditated murder, domestic violence and child abuse \u2013 are eligible for MHD. Judges are required to find these defendants eligible for MHD if they are diagnosed with any DSM-5 disorder \u2013 including anxiety, insomnia and eating disorders.\u00a0 Unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the disorder was not a motivating, causal, or contributing factor in the charged offense, MHD must be granted. Upon acceptance into the program, defendants are released back into the community with minimal supervision and high likelihood of recidivism. \u00a0Defendants who complete the program can have their case dismissed, leaving victims with no protection or assurance they will ever be free from further victimization.<\/p>\n
AB 46 gives discretion back to the court to determine an individual defendant\u2019s amenability and suitability for community treatment. It also allows prosecutors the ability to object to applicants that pose a risk to public safety without having to prove the defendant will commit a super strike.<\/p>\n
These changes are needed to amend current law that has undermined public safety and led to disastrous results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend the California Senate Public Safety Committee for its thoughtful review of AB\u202f46 and for advancing this critical public safety and mental health legislation,\u201d said Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho. \u201cI am also grateful to Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen for authoring AB\u202f46 and working closely with criminal justice and community organizations to balance mental\u2011health diversion laws by ensuring we provide treatment to those who need it while maintaining the safety of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California Senate Public Safety Committee took a significant step in restoring balance in the justice system by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-217027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}