(The Center Square) — A legislative committee has rejected a bipartisan bill to end a loophole in California’s mental health diversion program that allows mentally ill individuals charged with domestic violence, human trafficking or assault of a child under age 8 resulting in the child’s death, to seek mental health treatment instead of facing criminal charges and prison time.
Assembly Bill 433, a bipartisan bill authored by Assemblywoman Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, failed the Assembly Public Safety Committee when only Assemblymen Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, and Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, voted to advance the bill.
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, a former Democratic Assemblyman, testified in support of the bill. He shared a real-world situation in which the current diversion system resulted in no criminal record and no prison time for the killer of a child.
“Mark was taking care of his 1-year-old daughter, and at the same time, he got blackout drunk. He admitted to drinking a pint of vodka and several beers. Under his care, his baby girl suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs and a brain hemorrhage,” said Cooper. “She died of the horrific injuries inflicted by her father.”
“After he was arrested, Mark claimed he was too drunk to remember what he did, and prosecutors couldn’t prove his intent to kill. So, instead of murder, he faced only felony child abuse charges,” continued Cooper. “This made Mark eligible for mental health diversion instead of prison, which he was granted.”
As a result, Mark’s punishment was to “take a few virtual classes,” after which he “walked away with a clean slate,” Cooper said.
“The judge congratulated him, and the courtroom clapped for him,” the sheriff said. “Today, Mark has no criminal record. Mark is considered the victim for not remembering how he brutally killed his baby girl.”
Krell, while sympathetic to the apparent need for mental health diversions for some criminals, explained the current exemptions allow some more serious crimes to go unpunished.
“While there are certain cases where pretrial mental health diversion would be an appropriate alternative to criminal sentencing, this law fails to provide justice for victims who have been trafficked, abused as children, and individuals who have sustained great bodily injury,” wrote Krell in support of her bill to close the law’s loophole. “As applied to offenders who are dangerous and seek to continue to abuse their victims, this law creates a major public safety gap.”
The Assembly Public Safety Committee’s analysis of the bill noted the results of a 2019 study finding “more than 30% of the state’s prison and 23% of the jail populations have a mental illness,” and stated that “Promoting treatment over incarceration has shown positive results in reducing recidivism.”
While the bill was backed by law enforcement groups and anti-child-abuse advocates, the bill was opposed by a broad coalition including the American Civil Liberties Union and Smart Justice California — a project of George Soros-backed Tides Advocacy.
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“AB 443 seeks to limit the discretion of judges to apply mental health diversion to candidates that are currently eligible,” wrote Smart Justice California in opposition. “Current law never requires courts to grant diversion, it merely gives the court the ability, where appropriate, to use its informed discretion to divert mentally disordered people out of the criminal system and into the mental health treatment system.”
After the bill’s failure, Cooper announced he is hosting an event June 4 in Sacramento to discuss the state’s mental health diversion program and its impact on the state.