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House panel advances bill allowing some mental-health fitness evaluations in detention centers
Summary
The Montana House advanced House Bill 236 to permit fitness-to-proceed mental-health evaluations to be done in local detention centers and by two‑way video when appropriate. Sponsors said the change would ease pressure on state evaluation beds; lawmakers pressed for clarity on funding and limits.
House Bill 236, which would allow some court-ordered psychiatric fitness evaluations to be done in county detention centers rather than only at the state hospital, advanced on a committee vote after a substantive floor discussion.
Sponsor Representative Reavis, the bill’s author, told members that “Under the constitution, defendants must be found fit to proceed,” and said the bill preserves an existing option to conduct evaluations within local jails using local professionals,…
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