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News Ohio
Reporting
Requirements for Mentally
Ill Offenders Focus of New Bill
By Bret Crow
February 21, 2013
Ohio
Senate President Pro Tempore
Chris Widener.
A
bill introduced in the Ohio
Senate last week would require judges to report to law enforcement when
they
sentence a violent offender to mental-health treatment instead of
incarceration, or if they approve a conditional release for an
individual found
incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sponsored
by President Pro Tempore
Chris Widener and Sen. Bill Beagle, the idea for Senate Bill 7 resulted
from
the death of Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper on January 1,
2011.
She was shot and killed after responding to a call about gunfire at a
trailer
park in Enon. Michael Ferryman was also killed in the incident. After a
previous similar standoff with authorities 10 years earlier, he was
found not
guilty by reason of insanity, committed to a mental health facility,
and conditionally
released.
During
several interested-party
meetings before the introduction of the bill, Fairfield Municipal Court
Judge
Joyce A. Campbell worked with Sen. Widener to share the judiciary’s
perspective.
Judge
Campbell, who serves as
co-chair of the Ohio Judicial Conference’s Criminal Law and Procedure
Committee, will lead a discussion about the bill on Friday with fellow
committee members.
“While
the judges understand and
applaud his efforts to protect both law enforcement officers and the
public, we
have expressed our concern that in its current form the bill imposes
unrealistic and unfunded reporting requirements on the courts and law
enforcement” Judge Campbell said. “As a judge that has presided over a
mental
health docket since 2001, I do not believe this bill will achieve the
desired
goal.”
The
bill has been referred to the
Criminal Justice Committee. Read the story and view the text of the
bill here.
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