S-0904

AN ACT Relating to creating an additional hearing procedure when the court disagrees with the mental health evaluation conducted by a professional person; amending RCW 71.05.235; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 71.05.235 and 1998 c 297 s 18 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) If an individual is referred to a county designated mental health professional under RCW 10.77.090(1)(d)(iii)(A), the county designated mental health professional shall examine the individual within forty-eight hours. If the county designated mental health professional determines it is not appropriate to detain the individual or petition for a ninety-day less restrictive alternative under RCW 71.05.230(4), that decision shall be immediately presented to the superior court for hearing. The court shall hold a hearing to consider the decision of the county designated mental health professional not later than the next judicial day. At the hearing the superior court shall review the determination of the county designated mental health professional and determine whether an order should be entered requiring the person to be evaluated at an evaluation and treatment facility. No person referred to an evaluation and treatment facility may be held at the facility longer than seventy-two hours.

(2) If an individual is placed in an evaluation and treatment facility under RCW 10.77.090(1)(d)(iii)(B), a professional person shall evaluate the individual for purposes of determining whether to file a ninety-day inpatient or outpatient petition under chapter 71.05 RCW. Immediately following completion of the evaluation, the professional person shall file a petition or, if the recommendation of the professional person is to release the individual, present his or her recommendation to the court. The superior court shall review the recommendation not later than the next judicial day. If the court rejects the recommendation to unconditionally release the individual, the court may order the individual detained at a designated evaluation and treatment facility for not more than a seventy-two hour evaluation and treatment period and direct the individual to appear at a surety hearing before that court within seventy-two hours, or the court may release the individual but direct the individual to appear at a surety hearing set before that court within eleven days, at which time the prosecutor may file a petition under this chapter for ninety-day inpatient or outpatient treatment. If a petition is filed by the prosecutor, the court may order that the person named in the petition be detained at the evaluation and treatment facility that performed the evaluation under this subsection or order the respondent to be in outpatient treatment. If a petition is filed but the individual fails to appear in court for the surety hearing, the court shall order that a mental health professional or peace officer shall take such person or cause such person to be taken into custody and placed in an evaluation and treatment facility to be brought before the court the next judicial day after detention. Upon the individual's first appearance in court after a petition has been filed, proceedings under RCW 71.05.310 and 71.05.320 shall commence. For an individual subject to this subsection, the prosecutor or professional person may directly file a petition for ninety-day inpatient or outpatient treatment and no petition for initial detention or fourteen-day detention is required before such a petition may be filed.

(3) If a county designated mental health professional or the professional person and prosecuting attorney or attorney general, as appropriate, stipulate that the individual does not present a likelihood of serious harm or is not gravely disabled, the hearing under this section is not required and the individual, if in custody, shall be released.

(4) The individual shall have the rights specified in RCW 71.05.250.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect March 1, 1999, or upon approval by the governor, whichever occurs later.