A bipartisan group of California legislators is calling for stricter limits on California’smental health diversion programs, saying a well-intended reform has given criminals a “get out of jail free card” to wipe their records clean.

Senate Bill 1373, by state Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), would scale back the scope of mental health diversion created under Assembly Bill 1810 in 2018.

“I believe this program was created with good intentions, to divert those low-level crimes and benefit,” Grove said at a press conference Tuesday. “However well-intended this program was and might have been, in reality it did not come with enough guardrails and has become a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

AB 1810 allows defendants with qualifying mental disorders to enter diversion programs for treatment in lieu of traditional prosecution. If a defendant successfully completes a court-approved program, their charges can be dismissed and the arrest sealed.

But criminal suspects have been recorded in jail phone calls talking about citing the law in their cases to avoid jail time, Grove said.

“Perpetrators are returning to communities without projections and reoffending habitually,” Grove said. “Victims are left alone with no resources, no justice and no punishment for the perpetrator.”

SB 1373 would tighten eligibility for mental health diversion by requiring that a defendant’s mental disorder be diagnosed within five years of the charged offense.

It would also expand the list of disqualifying crimes to include attempted murder, kidnapping, carjacking and human trafficking, and it would bar diversion for defendants with two prior felony convictions or a prior strike under California’s Three Strikes law.

On Tuesday, Grove was flanked by law enforcement and other lawmakers, including Democratic Assemblymember Maggy Krell, a former Sacramento County district attorney and co-author of SB 1373, who cited several cases they say demonstrate unintended consequences of AB 1810.

Krell said nearly half of criminal cases in Sacramento involve petitions for diversion and that the state lacks sufficient treatment placements for those who qualify.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos