April 20, 2011 OPPOSE: SB 794 (Blakeslee)
The Honorable Loni Hancock
Chair, Senate Public Safety Committee
State Capitol, Room 2082
Sacramento, CA, 95814
Dear Senator Hancock:
NAMI California opposes SB 794 and asks for your “NO” vote. NAMI California is the state organization of the National Alliance on
Mental Illness and our 19,000 members include those individuals with serious mental illnesses, their family members and supporters.
NAMI California opposes SB 794 because it criminalizes people with mental illness. Existing California law provides punishment for
intentional criminal acts and recognizes exceptions for people experiencing symptoms of severe mental illness. SB 794 does not.
SB 794 would send a patient hospitalized due to severe mental illness to prison for two to four years for “gassing” a peace officer or
hospital staff, even though that act is committed due to mental illness. That is out of line with current understanding of mental illness,
purposes of hospitalization, and California law. Existing California law and current medical thought acknowledges that individuals
experiencing symptoms of severe mental illness deserve treatment, not punishment.
Existing law provides punishment for any person confined in a facility of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who
“gasses” a peace officer. That prisoner is guilty of aggravated battery. Existing law defines the act of “gassing” as “intentionally placing
or throwing…upon the person of another, any human excrement or other bodily fluids…” Penal Code 243 provides for punishment in the
event of battery by imposing custodial sentences. None of the punishments are as severe as the two to four year terms SB 794
proposes. The Penal Code also states that the person committing the offense “knows or should reasonably know” the status of the
victim. A hospitalized individual so ill as to “gas” a peace officer or hospital employee may too delusional to reasonably know the
victim’s status or to even recognize the victim.
California law differentiates the cases of people experiencing symptoms of severe mental illness because it recognizes that mental
illness is a disease, not an act of will or a choice. California law provides that people who have been found not guilty by reason of
insanity, or incompetent to stand trial, or are a danger to themselves or others, will be involuntarily confined in our state hospitals, not in
prisons. Criminalizing a person for actions caused by an illness would not be tolerated for any other physical illness.
SB 794 would serve only to perpetuate the tragedy that is California’s decades-long record of criminalizing persons with severe and
persistent mental illness. It would contribute to California’s already overcrowded and unconstitutional prison conditions.
NAMI California strongly urges your “NO” vote on SB794.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Hendrickson, President
NAMI California Board of Directors
Cc: Senator Sam Blakeslee
Members, Senate Public Safety Committee
Jerome McGuire, Senate Public Safety Committee
Eric Csizmar, Senate Republican Caucus
1010 Hurley Way, Suite 195, Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 567-0163 phone (916) 567-1757 fax