The CCP authorizes a judge to release on bail a defendant who has been found incompetenet to stand trial so that he can be restored to competency (provided the person is not a danger to self or others). Has anyone had experience with outpatient treatment to restore competency? My wife is a psychologist with the state and was asked about this the other day.

In the competency cases I have had, if the person was found incompetent, the judge ordered them sent to a state facility for treatment. I am curious to know whether outpatient treatment has been successful as an option.

First, there is no outpatient restoration program, in either the private or public sectors. I am referring to a program similar to the Vernon program which is a structured inpatient program designed to provide cognitive training with regard to the requisites for competency, coupled with conventional psychiatric treatment and with staff on-hand who are capable of conducting - and well documenting -- a competency appraisal.

Second, there is some unclarity in mental health circles unfamiliar with forensic determinations of mental illness and incompetency -- so, as one might suspect, there is an implicit assumption that conventional treatment in and of itself will result in restoration. That is not necessarily the case though, to be sure, some floridly psychotic folk will be competent when less psychotic. There is not, however, a 1:1 correspondence between psychosis and incompetency.

Third, my reading of 46B would suggest that there is no contemplation of "commitment" to an outpatient program. Sec. .072 allows release on bail "subject to conditions reasonably related to assuring public safety and the effectiveness of the defendant's treatment."

Ergo, good luck!

[This message was edited by Floyd L. Jennings on 10-26-06 at .]