Mental Health Advocacy Clinic—Significant Achievements for 2017-18
The Clinic was successful in drafting and obtaining passage of Public Act 100-0027 (effective January 1, 2018) which requires the prompt transfer from county jails to state mental health facilities of persons found unfit to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity. Many of these persons remained in jails getting little or no mental health services long after the court had ordered that they be sent to a hospital for treatment. Some remained in jails for more than six months. This practice was bad for these individuals and wasteful of government resources. Courts in a number of states had also found the practice violated the Due Process Clause.
House Bill 2477 amends the Illinois Election Code to facilitate voting for long term residents of state psychiatric hospitals. The existing law prohibited these persons from using the hospital as their voting address. Written when there were thousands of such persons in state hospitals, it was intended to prevent an undue influence on local elections. However, the law now only applies to a few hundred people state wide and these individuals have no other address from which to vote. The bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate without a dissenting vote and the Governor is expected to sign it in August, 2018.