AB 2212 -- authored by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (at left)(D-Pacoima/Panorama City) -- passed the Senate on August 11 in a 33-0 vote; and was equally unanimous (76-0) in the Assembly vote on August 17. The bill, which will add section 709 to the state Welfare and Institutes Code, the regulations that govern juvenile justice, brings the mental competency of juvenile defendants to stand trial in line with the due process laws that govern the same issue with adults.
What is not the same as adults, the California branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) wrote in a supporting statement June 14, 2010:
A meta-analysis study published in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found that the prevalence of mental disorders among justice-involved youth is not only significantly greater than that in the general population, psychosis is approximately ten (10) times as frequent.
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