SB 1452 Summary

• Expands military veterans and servicemembers court eligibility to include veterans with general discharges and creates new treatment-based mental health court programs for justice-involved individuals with serious mental illness.

• Establishes the Forensic Hospital Diversion Pilot Program in Escambia, Hillsborough, and Miami-Dade Counties to provide competency-restoration and community-reintegration services as alternatives to state forensic mental health facilities for eligible defendants.

• Allows county courts to order conditional release of defendants solely for outpatient mental health care and treatment under Chapter 916.

• Permits case transfers between counties for eligible defendants participating in problem-solving courts (drug courts, veterans' courts, and mental health courts) and authorizes postadjudicatory treatment-based mental health court programs as sentencing options for nonviolent felons with 60 or fewer Criminal Punishment Code points.

• Requires the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to report on the Forensic Hospital Diversion Pilot Program's efficiency and impact on public health and safety by December 31, 2016; effective July 1, 2015.