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Judiciary committee advances a package of Psychiatric Security Review Board bills; amendments aim to add juvenile expertise and protect records
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee approved several measures from the Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB), including adding juvenile expertise to certain hearings, immunizing the PSRB from liability, exempting certain health information from public records disclosure, and allowing disclosure of Department of Corrections records to the board.
The House Committee on Judiciary on Wednesday advanced a group of bills from the Psychiatric Security Review Board that the committee said together address board operations, juvenile expertise and confidentiality.
Lawmakers adopted a -1 amendment to House Bill 2,804 that removes the juvenile panel and instead requires the PSRB to appoint a child psychiatrist or psychologist with juvenile-system experience to review exhibits and submit reports for certain youth hearings when no qualified member is present. The amendment and the bill were approved and moved to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation.
The committee also approved House Bill 2,807, which would immunize the PSRB from liability for injury to person or property arising from conducting board hearings and specified board functions, including actions or omissions of persons under the board's jurisdiction while on conditional release or after discharge. The motion to move HB 2,807 to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation passed.
House Bill 2,812 was advanced with a recommendation to the floor; it would exempt individually identifiable health information of individuals under PSRB jurisdiction from disclosure under public records laws except in limited circumstances. Allison Board, executive director of the PSRB, told the committee that hearings and orders remain public: "That is correct that, all of our hearings remain public. We keep the recording of all of our hearings for 5 years by administrative rule, and that all of our orders are public," she said.
House Bill 2,915, which permits disclosure to the PSRB of written accounts and records containing individually identifiable health information of people under PSRB jurisdiction who are conditionally released to the Department of Corrections as provided by ORS 161.336 and described in conditional release orders, was also advanced with a "do pass" recommendation.
Committee members described the bills as having minimal fiscal impact and no revenue impact in staff summaries. Representatives who supported the measures said amendments were intended to ensure qualified juvenile expertise and to preserve necessary confidentiality while maintaining public access to hearings and orders.
Votes at a glance: HB 2,804; HB 2,807; HB 2,812; HB 2,915 ' each bill was approved in committee and moved to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation.
Next steps: Each bill will be scheduled for floor consideration; several will be considered alongside budget discussions because committee staff noted minimal fiscal impact.
