The group of North Carolina senators on Wednesday plans to review proposed changes to the state\u2019s process for evaluating criminal suspects for mental illness \u2014 the next step in the bill\u2019s journey to becoming law.<\/p>\n
The Senate Healthcare Committee is scheduled to discuss House Bill 1104<\/a>, which attempts to shift some mental evaluations out of emergency departments and expand the number of people who can conduct them. The bill would also allow more North Carolinians who are under involuntary commitment orders to undergo mental health treatment outside of psychiatric facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n The House passed the bill 100-10 earlier this month at the urging of state Rep. Tim Reeder, a Pitt County Republican and physician who wrote the legislation after holding multiple hearings on the state\u2019s practices for treating criminal suspects who suffer from mental illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reeder and others in the House began reviewing the state\u2019s laws after the August death of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian who moved to Charlotte in 2022 and was fatally stabbed on a city train. DeCarlos Brown, the man charged in her death, was deemed incapable of proceeding<\/a> following a mental evaluation.<\/p>\n The General Assembly in October approved a judicial reform package titled \u201cIryna\u2019s Law,\u201d an attempt to keep more suspects in custody while awaiting trial. Brown had been arrested multiple times prior to Zarutska\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n