HB 622: Enact the Mental Health and Community Wellness Act

That sections 2945.37, 2945.38, 2945.39, and 2945.401 be amended and section 5120.101 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

(A) As used in sections 2945.37 to 2945.402 of the Revised Code:

1. "Prosecutor" means a prosecuting attorney or a city director of law, village solicitor, or similar chief legal officer of a municipal corporation who has authority to prosecute a criminal case that is before the court or the criminal case in which a defendant in a criminal case has been found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.
2. "Examiner" means either of the following:
1. A psychiatrist or a licensed clinical psychologist who satisfies the criteria of division (I) of section 5122.01 of the Revised Code or is employed by a certified forensic center designated by the department of mental health and addiction services behavioral health to conduct examinations or evaluations.
2. For purposes of a separate intellectual disability evaluation that is ordered by a court pursuant to division (I) of section 2945.371 of the Revised Code, a psychologist designated by the director of developmental disabilities pursuant to that section to conduct that separate intellectual disability evaluation.
3. "Nonsecured status" means any unsupervised, off-grounds movement or trial visit from a hospital or institution, or any conditional release, that is granted to a person who is found incompetent to stand trial and is committed pursuant to section 2945.39 of the Revised Code or to a person who is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is committed pursuant to section 2945.40 of the Revised Code.
4. "Unsupervised, off-grounds movement" includes only off-grounds privileges that are unsupervised and that have an expectation of return to the hospital or institution on a daily basis.
5. "Trial visit" means a patient privilege of a longer stated duration of unsupervised community contact with an expectation of return to the hospital or institution at designated times.
6. "Conditional release" means a commitment status under which the trial court at any time may revoke a person's conditional release and order the rehospitalization or reinstitutionalization of the person as described in division (A) of section 2945.402 of the Revised Code and pursuant to which a person who is found incompetent to stand trial or a person who is found not guilty by reason of insanity lives and receives treatment in the community for a period of time that does not exceed the maximum prison term or term of imprisonment that the person could have received for the offense in question had the person been convicted of the offense instead of being found incompetent to stand trial on the charge of the offense or being found not guilty by reason of insanity relative to the offense.
7. "Licensed clinical psychologist," "person with a mental illness subject to court order," and "psychiatrist" have the same meanings as in section 5122.01 of the Revised Code.
8. "Person with an intellectual disability subject to institutionalization by court order" has the same meaning as in section 5123.01 of the Revised Code.
9. "Jail" has the same meaning as in section 2929.01 of the Revised Code.
10. "Person with a mental illness subject to court order" means a person with a mental illness who, because of the person's illness:
1. Represents a substantial risk of physical harm to self as manifested by evidence of threats of, or attempts at, suicide or serious self-inflicted bodily harm;
2. Represents a substantial risk of physical harm to others as manifested by evidence of recent homicidal or other violent behavior, evidence of recent threats that place another in reasonable fear of violent behavior and serious physical harm, or other evidence of present dangerousness;
3. Represents a substantial and immediate risk of serious physical impairment or injury to self as manifested by evidence that the person is unable to provide for and is not providing for the person's basic physical needs because of the person's mental illness and that appropriate provision for those needs cannot be made immediately available in the community;
4. Would benefit from treatment for the person's mental illness and is in need of such treatment as manifested by evidence of behavior that creates a grave and imminent risk to substantial rights of others or the person;
5. (i) Would benefit from treatment as manifested by evidence of behavior that indicates all of the following:
1. The person is unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision, based on a clinical determination.
2. The person has a history of lack of compliance with treatment for mental illness and one of the following applies:
1. At least twice within the thirty-six months prior to the filing of an affidavit seeking court-ordered treatment of the person under section 5122.111 of the Revised Code, the lack of compliance has been a significant factor in necessitating hospitalization in a hospital or receipt of services in a forensic or other mental health unit of a correctional facility, provided that the thirty-six-month period shall be extended by the length of any hospitalization or incarceration of the person that occurred within the thirty-six-month period.
2. Within the forty-eight months prior to the filing of an affidavit seeking court-ordered treatment of the person under section 5122.111 of the Revised Code, the lack of compliance resulted in one or more acts of serious violent behavior toward self or others or threats of, or attempts at, serious physical harm to self or others, provided that the forty-eight-month period shall be extended by the length of any hospitalization or incarceration of the person that occurred within the forty-eight-month period.
3. The person, as a result of the person's mental illness, is unlikely to voluntarily participate in necessary treatment.
4. In view of the person's treatment history and current behavior, the person is in need of treatment in order to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would be likely to result in a substantial risk of serious physical harm to the person or others.
5. In view of the person's criminal history and current behavior, the person is in need of treatment in order to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would be likely to result in a substantial risk of the person committing additional criminal acts.
6. (ii) An individual who meets only the criteria described in division (A) (10) (e) (i) of this section is not subject to hospitalization unless criminal proceedings are pending against the individual and the court seeks hospitalization under sections 2945.37 to 2945.402 of the Revised Code.

(A) The department of rehabilitation and correction shall establish a mental health and substance abuse community-based correctional facility pilot program to expand mental health and substance abuse treatment opportunities in community-based correctional facilities.

(B) Under the mental health and substance abuse community-based correctional facility pilot program, the department of rehabilitation and correction shall do all of the following:

1. Identify existing locations within community-based correctional facilities where residents in need of mental health or substance abuse treatment may reside;
2. Acquire medications for mental health and substance abuse treatment and provide those medications to residents in need of mental health or substance abuse treatment in community-based correctional facilities;
3. Hire staff that specialize in mental health and substance abuse treatment and employ them in community-based correctional facilities.

That existing sections 2945.37, 2945.38, 2945.39, and 2945.401 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.

All items in this act are hereby appropriated as designated out of any moneys in the state treasury to the credit of the designated fund. For all operating appropriations made in this act, those in the first column are for fiscal year 2026 and those in the second column are for fiscal year 2027. The operating appropriations made in this act are in addition to any other operating appropriations made for these fiscal years.

The foregoing appropriation item 501629, Mental Health Community-Based Correctional Facility, shall be used by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for the construction of a mental health and substance abuse community-based correctional facility to be located on state grounds in Lucas County and adjacent to the existing Toledo Correctional Institution and Lucas County Correctional Treatment Facility.

On the effective date of this section, or as soon as possible thereafter, the Director of Budget and Management shall transfer $26,000,000 cash from the General Revenue Fund to the Mental Health Community-Based Correctional Facility Fund (Fund 5BQ1), which is hereby created in the state treasury.

Within the limits set forth in this act, the Director of Budget and Management shall establish accounts indicating the source and amount of funds for each appropriation made in this act, and shall determine the manner in which appropriation accounts shall be maintained. Expenditures from operating appropriations contained in this act shall be accounted for as though made in, and are subject to all applicable provisions of, H.B. 96 of the 136th General Assembly.

Not later than six months after the effective date of this section, the Medicaid Director shall seek a federal demonstration waiver from the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services to provide mental health and substance use disorder treatment services to individuals participating in the mental health and substance abuse community-based correctional facility pilot program authorized by section 5120.101 of the Revised Code.

This act shall be known as the Mental Health and Community Wellness Act.