In her allotted two minutes, Anne Carlisle was blunt. \u201cCali is dying on the streets because there is no way…to help her.\u201d Anne fears \u201cthe tragic end that she will meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792558573_865_SAC_0859_RCB_20261013_CarlisleBehavioralHealth.JPG\" "\\"SAC_0859_RCB_20261013_CarlisleBehavioralHealth.JPG\\"")
Anne Marie Carlisle speaks during a behavioral health workshop at Sacramento City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, as her husband, Christopher Carlisle, holds their adopted daughter, Laura. Laura is the daughter of Christopher\u2019s daughter, Califia Carlisle, who is homeless and struggles with schizophrenia and drug addiction. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Sacramento city staff explained why too many people are experiencing tragedies like Cali\u2019s. There are an estimated 4,000 unsheltered homeless people in Sacramento County on any given night. Roughly a third of them report having behavioral health issues. Like Califia, too many people are cycling through systems that process homelessness rather than end it.<\/p>\n
CARE Court \u2014 the city strikes out<\/p>\n
There are two ways the judicial system can encourage or mandate mental health and addiction treatment for Californians who need it. The new and voluntary approach is the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court. Implemented in 2024, CARE Court is considered one of the signature achievements of Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s eight-year tenure.<\/p>\n
Yet CARE Court can be a toothless enterprise that offers help in name only.<\/a><\/p>\n Brian Pedro, director of the Sacramento Department of Community Response, told council members that the city has filed 50 petitions since CARE Court was enacted in Sacramento County.<\/p>\n \u201cNone have been accepted to date,\u201d Pedro said.<\/p>\n Christopher Carlisle suffered a similar fate in 2024 when he petitioned the court in pursuit of treatment for his daughter. Califia refused to be evaluated by a county social worker, and that was all it took to derail her case.<\/p>\n When he was in the California Assembly, McCarty was co-author of CARE Court legislation that initially gave judges the power to enforce an order for care. But Democrats neutered CARE Court into a purely voluntary endeavor. This happened under then-Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon of Paramount and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins of San Diego. Then this year, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, pushed a CARE Court reform bill (SB 1016) that would have allowed law enforcement under certain circumstances to detain anyone resisting an evaluation long enough to conduct one. The Assembly Health Committee, led by Mia Bonta, D-Fremont, on July 2 unanimously approved amendments that deleted the enforcement mechanisms from Blakespear\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremist views gutted the promise of CARE Court,\u201d said Councilmember Eric Guerra. The Democratic leadership is swayed<\/a> by factions that place civil liberties and the \u201crights\u201d of the disabled above all else. But what does that mean for Califia? She is unaware of her own schizophrenia and self-medicates with whatever drugs she can find. Leaving her untreated is not compassion \u2014 for her or for her toddler, Laura,<\/a> whom Anne and Christopher have adopted.<\/p>\n The council on Tuesday vowed to pursue state legislation to give CARE Court the powers that Newsom originally intended. That\u2019s an encouraging start.<\/p>\n The county\u2019s revolving door of mental illness<\/p>\n The established way to compel treatment in California is through a complex court process known as conservatorship. In Sacramento County, that process can begin when law enforcement detains someone displaying severe behavioral health problems for up to 72 hours.<\/p>\n City staff did the homework and came up with the numbers. Officers brought to hospitals individuals displaying major behavioral issues more than 10,000 times. Of those, a court mandated treatment on only 55 occasions.<\/p>\n This helps explain why Califia Carlisle has cycled through the system for a decade and why two attempts to place her under conservatorship have failed.<\/p>\n Even more disturbing is how the office of the Public Guardian, Sacramento County\u2019s official arbiter of who should be pursued for conservatorship, fails in its efforts most of the time. For every court-ordered conservatorship, two cases in 2025 were rejected. Why does the Public Guardian have a losing record?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we haven\u2019t had is the coordination needed to provide the Public Guardian enough information to have a strong case,\u201d Pedro said.<\/p>\n Mandating care in California is the equivalent of a quadruple bank shot in billiards \u2014 law enforcement detaining someone needing care, behavioral health workers quickly making an assessment, the Public Guardian building the case and a judge issuing the order. That takes extraordinary coordination among governments.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system, especially in Sacramento County, is very siloed,\u201d said Brian Morr, a captain in the Sacramento Fire Department, which is the city\u2019s first responder to most homeless calls. \u201cWe don\u2019t talk.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Brian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SAC_1602_RCB_20261013_CarlisleBehavioralHealth.JPG\" "\\"SAC_1602_RCB_20261013_CarlisleBehavioralHealth.JPG\\"")
Brian Pedro, director of community response, listens to City Council members\u2019 discussion after delivering a report during a behavioral health workshop at a Sacramento City Council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. REN\u00c9E C. BYER rbyer@sacbee.com <\/p>\n