California
Public Psychiatric Beds | Criminalization | Criminal Diversion | Additional California Resources | Read California’s civil commitment statutes now
Getting your loved one help in California: In a psychiatric emergency, the more you know about your state’s laws and treatment options, the better prepared you will be to respond in the most effective way possible. These resources will help:
- Essential information on who may initiate proceedings leading to mandatory treatment
- State standards for emergency hospitalization for a psychiatric evaluation
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Estimated Prevalence of Severe Mental Illness in California (2020)
(SOURCE: NIMH and US BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, 2020) |
Mandatory Treatment Laws in California
California has civil commitment laws that decide when involuntary treatment (also known as “court-ordered treatment”) is appropriate for individuals with severe mental illness who are too ill to seek care voluntarily.
To review the full California standards for initiating a civil commitment proceeding, emergency hospitalization, or inpatient or outpatient commitment, consult our “Know the Laws in Your State” page.
You can find the California civil commitment law, here.
| Laura's Law If your county has not yet implemented Laura's Law, there currently is no legal mechanism for getting your loved one into assisted outpatient treatment. Take Action Now to bring Laura’s Law to your county! Click here to join the effort. |
California's Civil Commitment Laws
The Treatment Advocacy Center's state survey of civil commitment laws rated California's laws:
| GRADING CALIFORNIA STATE LAWS | |
| PART ONE: INPATIENT COMMITMENT STATUTE | 25 |
| PART TWO: OUTPATIENT COMMITMENT STATUTE | 35 |
| TOTAL | 60 |
| GRADE | D- |
(SOURCE: GRADING THE STATES: AN ANALYSIS OF INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT LAWS, Treatment Advocacy Center, 2020)
Public Psychiatric Beds in California
A minimum of 50 beds per 100,000 people is considered necessary to provide minimally adequate treatment for individuals with severe mental illness. Like every state, California fails to meet this minimum standard.
| Beds in 2016 | Beds in 2010 | Beds lost or gained | Beds per 100,000 people | Census of forensic patients | % of all beds occupied forensic | State ranking in beds per capita |
| 5,905 | 5,283 | 622 | 15.1 | 4,412 | 74.7 | 14 |
(SOURCE: GOING, GOING, GONE: TRENDS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ELIMINATING STATE PSYCHIATRIC BEDS, Treatment Advocacy Center, 2016)
Criminalization of Mental Illness in California
Like nearly every state in the nation, California incarcerates more individuals with severe mental illness than it hospitalizes.
| Total inmate population 2005 | Estimated population of SMI inmates | Total psychiatric inpatient population 2004 | Likelihood of incarceration vs. hospitalization |
| 246,317 | 39,411 | 10,295 | 3.8 to 1 |
(SOURCE: MORE MENTALLY ILL PERSONS ARE IN JAILS AND PRISONS THAN HOSPITALS: A Survey of the States, Treatment Advocacy Center, 2010)
Criminal Diversion in California
Criminal justice officials are responding to the criminalization of individuals with innovative programs designed to divert individuals with severe mental illness away from the criminal justice system. Two of the most promising programs are: mental health courts and crisis intervention training (CIT).
| Population served by mental health court | Population served by CIT | Combined average | Grade |
| 78% | 79% | 79% | A |
(SOURCE: PREVALENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH DIVERSION PRACTICES: A SURVEY OF THE STATES, Treatment Advocacy Center, 2013)
Policy Recommendations
- Take Action Now to bring Laura’s Law to all CA counties
- End the elimination of public psychiatric beds
- Restore a sufficient number of beds to create access to inpatient care for qualifying individuals in crisis