Behavioral Health Education and Resources

This page aims to increase knowledge of the intersection between criminal justice and behavioral health, and to better address the needs of court users. It is intended for California court  judicial officers, court employees, and justice partner agencies.

Incompetent to Stand Trial Project

The Judicial Council is launching a project with support from the California Department of State Hospitals to enhance the quality of forensic evaluator reports in adult competence to stand trial proceedings through evaluator training. This project will additionally develop and implement strategies to increase the statewide pool of qualified forensic evaluators and will assist courts in identifying and scheduling evaluators.

Incompetent to Stand Trial Fact Sheet

AB 1810 Mental Health Diversion

Assembly Bill 1810 established mental health diversion for defendants facing both misdemeanor and felony charges (Penal Code §§ 1001.35, 1001.36), and amended the statutes for mental competency proceedings (Penal Code §§ 1370, 1370.01) to allow a judge to grant diversion to a defendant who has been found incompetent to stand trial.

Mental Health Diversion Data

The Judicial Council of California works with trial courts to collect data on mental health diversion granted under Penal Code § 1001.36. Mental Health Diversion data is available in the Mental Health Diversion Data Summary Report.

Pretrial Mental Health Diversion

The interactive dashboards below present data reported to the Judicial Council of California.  The Supplemental Report of the 2019 Budget Act by the Legislative Analyst’s Office requires trial courts, among other data elements, to provide data on the number of petitions that were granted for mental health diversion set forth in Penal Code § 1001.36.

In January 1, 2020, trial courts began data reporting, and some courts voluntarily reported data from 2019. These dashboards display data on mental health diversion programs by county and by case type. Data on the number of petitions that were denied include the number of petitions denied because the defendant did not meet the statutory requirements for eligibility and the number of petitions denied based on other findings.  

Source: Quarterly petition data reported to Criminal Justice Services, Judicial Council of California, pursuant to Supplemental Report of the 2019-20 Budget Act Item 0250-001-0001

Implementation

Behavioral Health Education Series: AB 1810 Implementation

This webinar discusses the basic eligibility requirements of the new mental health diversion law, the effect of legislative amendments, the procedural process, and strategies to implement the law effectively. The webinar also discusses how the collaborative court model can be used to implement the law and how the new law may impact existing collaborative courts.

• Presentation
• Video