ARTICLE 5. Transfer of Patients [7300 - 7329]
( Article 5 added by Stats. 1967, Ch. 1667. )
(a) It shall be the policy of the department to make available to all persons admitted to a state hospital prior to July 1, 1969, and to all persons judicially committed or remanded to its jurisdiction all of the facilities under the control of the department. Whenever, in the opinion of the Director of State Hospitals, it appears that a person admitted prior to July 1, 1969, or that a person judicially committed or remanded to the State Department of State Hospitals for placement in an institution would be benefited by a transfer from that institution to another institution under the department’s jurisdiction, the director may cause the transfer of the patient. Preference shall be given in any such transfer to an institution in an adjoining rather than a remote district.
(b) However, before an inmate of a correctional school may be transferred to a state hospital, he or she shall first be returned to a court of competent jurisdiction, and, if subject to commitment, after hearing, may be committed to a state hospital in accordance with law.
(c) The expense of the transfers is chargeable to the state, and the bills for the same, when approved by the Director of State Hospitals, shall be paid by the Treasurer on the warrant of the Controller, out of moneys provided for the care or support of the patients or out of the moneys provided for the support of the department, in the discretion of the department.
(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 144, Sec. 126. (AB 1847) Effective January 1, 2015.)
Whenever, in the opinion of the Director of State Hospitals and with the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, any person who has been committed to a state hospital pursuant to provisions of the Penal Code or who has been placed in a state hospital temporarily for observation pursuant to, or who has been committed to a state hospital pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 6300) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 6 of this code needs care and treatment under conditions of custodial security which can be better provided within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the person may be transferred for those purposes from an institution under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals to an
institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Persons so transferred shall not be subject to the provisions of Section 4500, 4501, 4501.5, 4502, 4530, or 4531 of the Penal Code. However, they shall be subject to the general rules of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and of the facility where they are confined and any correctional employee dealing with those persons during the course of an escape or attempted escape, a fight or a riot, shall have the same rights, privileges and immunities as if the person transferred had been committed to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Whenever a person is transferred to an institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation pursuant to this section, any report, opinion, or certificate required or authorized to be filed with the court which
committed the person to a state hospital, or ordered the person placed therein, shall be prepared and filed with the court by the head of the institution in which the person is actually confined or by the designee of the head of the institution.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 186. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)
Patients admitted to a state hospital prior to July 1, 1969, and all patients judicially committed or remanded, may be transferred to a like institution at the request of relatives or friends, if there is room in the like institution to which transfer is sought and if the department or departments having jurisdiction over such institutions and the medical directors of the institutions from which and to which the transfer is to be made consent thereto. The expense of such transfer shall be paid by such relatives or friends.
(Amended by Stats. 1977, Ch. 1252.)
Whenever a person, committed to the care of the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services under one of the commitment laws which provides for reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment of the person, is transferred under Section 7300 to an institution under the jurisdiction of the department where the state rather than the county is liable for the support and care of patients, the county of commitment may have the original commitment vacated and a new commitment issued, designating the institution to which the person has been transferred, in order to absolve the county from liability under the original commitment.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 187. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)
Whenever a person, committed to the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services under one of the commitment laws providing for no reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment, is transferred under Section 6700 to an institution under the jurisdiction of the department where the county is required to reimburse the state for such care and treatment, the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services may have the original commitment vacated and a new commitment issued, designating the institution to which the person has been transferred, in order to make the county liable for the care and treatment of the committed person to the extent provided by Sections 7511
and 7512.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 188. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)
(a) When any patient committed by a court to a state hospital or other institution on or before June 30, 1969, or when any patient who is judicially committed on or after July 1, 1969, or when any patient who is involuntarily detained pursuant to Part 1 (commencing with Section 5000) of Division 5 escapes from any state hospital, any hospital or facility operated by or under the Veterans’ Administration of the United States government, or any facility designated by a county pursuant to Part 1 (commencing with Section 5000) of Division 5, or any facility into which the patient has been placed by his or her conservator appointed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of Part 1 of Division 5, or when a judicially committed patient’s
return from leave of absence has been authorized or ordered by the State Department of State Hospitals, or the State Department of Developmental Services, or the facility of the Veterans’ Administration, any peace officer, upon written request of the state hospital, veterans’ facility, or the facility designated by a county, or the patient’s conservator appointed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of Part 1 of Division 5, shall, without the necessity of a warrant or court order, or any officer or employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, or of the State Department of Developmental Services, designated to perform these duties may, apprehend, take into custody, and deliver the patient to the state hospital or to a facility of the Veterans’ Administration, or the facility designated by a county, or to any person or place authorized by the State Department of State Hospitals, the State Department of Developmental Services, the Veterans’ Administration, the local director of the
county mental health program of the county in which is located the facility designated by the county, or the patient’s conservator appointed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of Part 1 of Division 5, as the case may be, to receive him or her. Every officer or employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, or of the State Department of Developmental Services, designated to apprehend or return those patients has the powers and privileges of peace officers so far as necessary to enforce this section.
(b) As used in this section, “peace officer” means a person as specified in Section 830.1 of the Penal Code.
(c) Any officer or employee of a state hospital, hospital or facility operated by or under the Veterans’ Administration, or any facility designated by a county pursuant to Part 1 (commencing with Section 5000) of Division 5 shall provide any peace officer
with any information concerning any patient who escapes from the hospital or facility that is necessary to assist in the apprehension and return of the patient. The written notification of the escape required by this section shall include the name and physical description of the patient, his or her home address, the degree of dangerousness of the patient, including specific information about the patient if he or she is deemed likely to cause harm to himself or herself or to others, and any additional information that is necessary to apprehend and return the patient. If the escapee has been charged with any crime involving physical harm to children, the notice shall be provided by the law enforcement agency to school districts in the vicinity of the hospital or other facility in which the escapee was being held, in the area the escapee is known or is likely to frequent, and in the area where the escapee resided immediately prior to confinement.
(d) The person in charge of the hospital or facility, or his or her designee, may provide telephonic notification of the escape to the law enforcement agency of the county or city in which the hospital or facility is located. If that notification is given, the time and date of notification, the person notified, and the person making the notification shall be noted in the written notification required by this section.
(e) Photocopying is not required in order to satisfy the requirements of this section.
(f) No public or private entity or public or private employee shall be liable for damages caused, or alleged to be caused, by the release of information or the failure to release information pursuant to this section.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 189. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)
Notwithstanding Section 5328, information regarding a person’s name, reason for commitment, age, physical description, and any other information which the medical director of the treatment facility considers essential in aiding apprehension of the escapee shall be released if the person has escaped from a state mental health facility, and the person was committed to the state mental health facility by a court after being found not guilty by reason of insanity pursuant to Section 1026 of the Penal Code, unable to stand trial due to mental condition pursuant to Section 1370 of the Penal Code, or a mentally disordered sex offender pursuant to Division 6 (commencing with Section 6000).
(Added by Stats. 1982, Ch. 1415, Sec. 2. Effective September 27, 1982.)
Any person who willfully assists any judicially committed or remanded patient of a state hospital or other public or private mental health facility to escape, to attempt to escape therefrom, or to resist being returned from a leave of absence shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both such imprisonment and fine; or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, a fine of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000), or both such imprisonment and fine.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 624. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.)
Every peace officer who is designated in and pursuant to Section 7325 delivers or assists in the delivery of a patient to a state hospital or other place designated by a state hospital shall be entitled to receive from the state hospital such fees and expenses as are payable to sheriffs for conveyance of patients to state hospitals.
(Added by Stats. 1967, Ch. 1667.)
Whenever a person who is committed to an institution subject to the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services, under one of the commitment laws that provides for reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment of the person, is accused of committing a crime while confined in the institution and is committed by the court in which the crime is charged to another institution under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals or the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the state rather than the county of commitment shall bear the subsequent cost of supporting and caring for the person.
(Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 24, Sec. 190. (AB 1470) Effective June 27, 2012.)
(a) When a patient, who is subject to judicial commitment, has escaped from a public mental hospital in a state of the United States other than California and is present in this state, a peace officer, health officer, county physician, or assistant county physician may take the person into custody within five years after the escape. The person may be admitted and detained in the quarters provided in a county hospital or state hospital upon application of the peace officer, health officer, county physician, or assistant county physician. The application shall be in writing and shall state the identity of the person, the name and place of the institution from which he or she escaped and the approximate date of the escape, and the fact that the person has been apprehended pursuant to this section.
(b) As soon as possible after the person is apprehended, the district attorney of the county in which the person is present shall file a petition in the superior court alleging the facts of the escape, and requesting an immediate hearing on the question of whether the person has escaped from a public mental hospital in another state within five years prior to his or her apprehension. The hearing shall be held within three days after the day on which the person was taken into custody. If the court finds that the person has not escaped from such a hospital within five years prior to his or her apprehension, he or she shall be released immediately.
(c) If the court finds that the person did escape from a public mental hospital in another state within five years prior to his or her apprehension, the superintendent or physician in charge of the quarters provided in the county hospital or
state hospital may care for and treat the person, and the district attorney of the county in which the person is present immediately shall present to a judge of the superior court a petition asking that the person be judicially committed to a state hospital in this state. The hearing on the petition shall be held within seven days after the court’s determination in the original hearing that the person did escape from a public mental hospital in another state within five years prior to his apprehension. Proceedings shall thereafter be conducted as on a petition for judicial commitment of the particular type of person subject to judicial commitment. If the court finds that the person is subject to judicial commitment it shall order him or her judicially committed to a state hospital in this state; otherwise, it shall order him or her to be released. It shall be the duty of the superintendent of the state hospital to accept custody of the person, if he or she has been determined to be subject to judicial
commitment. The State Department of State Hospitals will promptly cause the person to be returned to the institution from which he or she escaped if the authorities in charge of the institution agree to accept him or her. If the authorities refuse to accept the person, the superintendent of the state hospital in which the person is confined shall continue to care for and treat the person in the same manner as any other person judicially committed to the hospital as having a mental health disorder.
(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 144, Sec. 127. (AB 1847) Effective January 1, 2015.)