People v. Superior Court (Broadway)

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Originally launched in 2009, BHC is a collaborative court that combines evidence-based practices, treatment, and rehabilitative services with intensive judicial supervision to provide services to defendants who are suffering from serious mental illness. The program operates on a team approach, with a team that includes a judicial officer, a public defender, a district attorney, a city attorney, probation officers specifically assigned to the program, mental health treatment professionals under contract to the program, mental health clinicians from the public defender’s office, a court analyst, and a representative from the county Behavioral Health Services. Unlike other diversion programs, such as pretrial diversion for defendants with mental health disorders (section 1001.36), BHC was not created by statutory mandate, but rather through a joint agreement of the various involved parties to address mental health issues for certain qualifying individuals involved in the criminal justice system. As a result, BHC has no governing statutes. Defendants are identified as potential participants in BHC through a referral system. Upon request by a…