81R5199 KEL-D

By: Menendez H.B. No. 1233

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the court-ordered administration of psychoactive medication to certain criminal defendants.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Sections 574.106(a) and (a-1), Health and Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:

(a) The court may issue an order authorizing the administration of one or more classes of psychoactive medication to a patient who:

(1) is under a court order to receive:

(A) inpatient mental health services; or

(B) outpatient mental health services, if the patient has been released on bail under Article 46B.072, Code of Criminal Procedure; or

(2) is in custody awaiting trial in a criminal proceeding and was ordered to receive inpatient or outpatient mental health services in the six months preceding a hearing under this section.

(a-1) The court may issue an order under this section only if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence after the hearing:

(1) for any patient, including a patient who has been determined to be incompetent to stand trial or who has been acquitted of an offense by reason of insanity, that:

(A) the patient lacks the capacity to make a decision regarding the administration of the proposed medication; and

(B) treatment with the proposed medication is in the best interest of the patient; or

(2) if the patient was ordered to receive inpatient mental health services by a criminal court with jurisdiction over the patient, that:

(A) the patient presents a danger to the patient or others in the inpatient mental health facility in which the patient is being treated as a result of a mental disorder or mental defect as determined under Section 574.1065; and

(B) treatment with the proposed medication is in the best interest of the patient.

SECTION 2. Section 574.107(b), Health and Safety Code, is amended to read as follows:

(b) The county in which the applicable criminal charges are pending or were adjudicated shall pay as provided by Subsection (a) the costs of a hearing that is held under Section 574.106 to evaluate the court-ordered administration of psychoactive medication to:

(1) a patient ordered to receive [inpatient] mental health services as described by Section 574.106(a)(1) after having been determined to be incompetent to stand trial or having been acquitted of an offense by reason of insanity; or

(2) a patient who:

(A) is awaiting trial after having been determined to be competent to stand trial; and

(B) was ordered to receive [inpatient] mental health services as described by Section 574.106(a)(2).

SECTION 3. Articles 46B.086(a), (b), and (c), Code of Criminal Procedure, are amended to read as follows:

(a) This article applies only to a defendant:

(1) who is determined under this chapter to be incompetent to stand trial;

(2) who is confined in a correctional facility while awaiting transfer to an inpatient mental health facility or a residential care facility or who has been released on bail to an outpatient treatment program;

(3) for whom a correctional facility with licensed physicians providing psychiatric services, an inpatient mental health facility, a residential care facility, or an outpatient treatment program provider has prepared a continuity of care plan that requires the defendant to take psychoactive medications; and

(4) [(3)] who, after a hearing held under Section 574.106, Health and Safety Code, has been found to not [to] meet the criteria prescribed by Sections 574.106(a) and (a-1), Health and Safety Code, for court-ordered administration of psychoactive medications[; or

[(4) who is subject to Article 46B.072].

(b) If a defendant described by Subsection (a) refuses to take psychoactive medications as required by the defendant's continuity of care plan, the director of the correctional facility or outpatient treatment program provider, as applicable, shall notify the court in which the criminal proceedings are pending of that fact not later than the end of the next business day following the refusal. The court shall promptly notify the attorney representing the state and the attorney representing the defendant of the defendant's refusal. The attorney representing the state may file a written motion to compel medication. The motion to compel medication must be filed not later than the 15th day after the date a judge issues an order stating that the defendant does not meet the criteria for court-ordered administration of psychoactive medications under Section 574.106, Health and Safety Code, except that,[. The motion to compel medication] for a defendant in an outpatient treatment program, the motion may be filed at any time after the date a judge issues such an order.

(c) The court, after notice and after a hearing held not later than the fifth day after the defendant is returned to the committing court, may authorize the director of the [a] correctional facility or the program provider, as applicable, to have the medication administered to the defendant, by reasonable force if necessary.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2009.