§4245 Hospitalization of an Imprisoned Person Suffering From Mental Disease or Defect

Summary

If a prisoner objects to being moved to a hospital or treatment center for mental health care, a government lawyer can ask the local court for a hearing about the prisoner’s current mental condition. The court must hold the hearing if there is good reason to think the prisoner now has a mental illness or defect and needs to be kept in a treatment facility. Asking for that hearing pauses any transfer until the court’s procedures are finished. Before the hearing, the court can order a psychiatric or psychological exam and report. If the court finds, by more likely than not, that the prisoner needs custody for treatment, it must place the person under the Attorney General’s care and have them hospitalized until they no longer need treatment or until their prison sentence ends, whichever comes first. When the hospital director says the person has recovered, the director must file a paper with the court. The court clerk sends copies to the prisoner’s lawyer and the government lawyer. If the prison term has not ended, the court will send the person back to prison until the sentence is over.