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.