SB 1540 Summary

• Expands criminal justice diversion program to include nonviolent misdemeanants and defendants charged with promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree, with automatic screening for involuntary hospitalization or assisted community treatment.

• Authorizes telehealth examinations of defendants in fitness-to-proceed cases, with procedures to be established by the director of health, director of public safety, and chief justice.

• Extends the allowable period for court-ordered assisted community treatment (specific duration left blank in bill) and eliminates courts' need to reconsider unchanged factors when extending treatment orders.

• Allows courts to require probation violators to undergo mental health evaluation and treatment as a condition of continued probation when violations are associated with mental disease or disorder.

• Requires the Department of Health to establish or contract with behavioral health crisis centers in each county operating 24/7 to provide intervention and stabilization services, including dedicated first responder drop-off areas; appropriates unspecified funding across multiple agencies.