Companion bills AB 2830, authored by Assemblymember Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), and SB 1338, authored by Sen. Thomas Umberg (D- Santa Ana) and Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), would establish the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court, which was introduced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month.
The legislation would authorize courts to place adults with untreated schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders, along with misdemeanor defendants found mentally incompetent to stand trial, in a year-long mandated program.
The bill’s text says care currently comes too late for this demographic. It is usually pursued after an arrest, conservatorship or institutionalization. The proposed change would mean
