HBA-CCH H.B. 1463 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1463
By: Maxey
Public Health
2/22/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law allows people with a mental illness, who have not been charged
with a crime, to be placed in a jail or similar detention facility under
emergency conditions.  Police report that they often arrest or incarcerate
persons with a mental illness when treatment alternatives would be
preferable but are unavailable.  Jails often detain these individuals for
at least 24 hours and up to several days pending a psychiatric examination,
available psychiatric beds, or transportation to public psychiatric
hospitals, which, in rural communities, can be a great distance from jail
facilities.  Even short-term incarceration can exacerbate a person's mental
illness due to confinement, overcrowding, idleness, and a lack of
rehabilitation.  House Bill 1463 prohibits a person with a  mental illness
who has not been charged with a crime from being placed in a jail or
similar detention facility.     

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1463 amends the Health and Safety Code to provide that, even in
cases of extreme emergency, a person taken into custody because of mental
illness may not be detained, with or without a court order, in a jail or
similar nonmedical detention facility. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.