In re Mille

In In re Mille (2010) 182 Cal.App.4th 635, another appellate court addressed the claim that an 84-day delay in transferring an IST defendant from the county jail to the state hospital was unlawful. The court focused on the requirement in section 1370, subdivision (b)(1), that the medical director of the state hospital report to the court within 90 days of commitment on the defendant's progress toward recovery of mental competence. (Mille, at p. 645.) "When a defendant arrives at Patton State Hospital on day 84 of the 90-day period, there is no meaningful opportunity for the defendant to make progress toward recovery of mental competence, let alone for the medical director of the hospital to make a written report to the court concerning such progress by the defendant." (Ibid.) The court rejected the argument that the defendant was receiving appropriate treatment at the jail, which was a designated treatment facility under section 1369.1 and thus able to provide antipsychotic medications. It found that providing a defendant with antipsychotic medication alone was not the equivalent of treatment in a state hospital where each patient had a treatment team of a psychiatrist, psychologist, nurse, social worker, and psychiatric technician, and received both pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment. (Mille, supra, 182 Cal.App.4th at p. 648.) The Mille court found a defendant must be transferred from the county jail to a state hospital within a reasonable time, determined in the context of the 90-day reporting requirement. "Constitutional principles prohibit a defendant from being held 'more than the reasonable' period of time necessary to determine whether there is a substantial probability that he will attain that capacity in the foreseeable future. . Therefore, when the court orders a defendant committed to a state mental hospital for treatment that will promote a defendant's 'speedy restoration to mental competence' ( 1370, subd. (a)(1)(B)(i)), the court must also ensure that the defendant is actually transferred to the state hospital within a reasonable period of time." (Mille, supra, 182 Cal.App.4th at p. 650.) The Mille court declined "'to attempt to prescribe arbitrary time limits'" for the transfer from the county jail to state hospital for treatment. (Mille, supra, 182 Cal.App.4th at p. 649; see id. at pp. 649-650.) The court noted, however, that Mille filed his initial habeas corpus petition 30 days after the order for his commitment, and the trial court denied it 49 days into the 90-day reporting period. (Id. at p. 649.) The court found the superior court should have granted the petition. (Ibid.) "A defendant needs sufficient time at the state mental hospital to be duly evaluated, potentially to derive some benefit from the prescribed treatment, and for such progress to be reported to the court." (Id. at p. 650.)