Title 34NavyRelease 119-73not60

§10472 Definitions

Title 34 › Subtitle Subtitle I— Comprehensive Acts › Chapter 101— JUSTICE SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT › Subchapter XXI— MENTAL HEALTH COURTS › § 10472

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

Defines words used for court-ordered outpatient treatment for people with serious mental conditions. Mental illness — a mental, behavior, or emotional disorder a qualified professional can diagnose that meets the criteria in the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and that causes major problems in daily life. Preliminarily qualified offender with mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders — a person who has a past or current diagnosis or shows clear signs of those conditions during arrest, confinement, or court, and whom a designated judge finds eligible. Court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment — a court-ordered plan that requires an eligible person to get outpatient mental health care (not while in jail or inpatient care) to help them keep up with intensive services and to prevent relapse, repeated hospital stays, arrest, jail, suicide, property damage, or violence, and to let them live outside jail or forced hospitalization. Eligible patient — an adult with mental illness who a court finds meets one or more risks such as a history of violence, jail, or unnecessary hospital stays; being a danger without supervision; unlikely to take treatment voluntarily; unable (for reasons other than poverty) to meet basic needs; likely to get much worse without timely treatment; or lacking the capacity or judgment to decide about treatment.

Full Legal Text

Title 34, §10472

Navy — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

In this subchapter—
(1)the term “mental illness” means a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder—
(A)of sufficient duration to meet diagnostic criteria within the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association; and
(B)that has resulted in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits 1 or more major life activities;
(2)the term “preliminarily qualified offender with mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring mental and substance abuse disorders” means a person who—
(A)(i)previously or currently has been diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional as having a mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders; or
(ii)manifests obvious signs of mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders during arrest or confinement or before any court; and
(B)is deemed eligible by designated judges;
(3)the term “court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment” means a program through which a court may order a treatment plan for an eligible patient that—
(A)requires such patient to obtain outpatient mental health treatment while the patient is not currently residing in a correctional facility or inpatient treatment facility; and
(B)is designed to improve access and adherence by such patient to intensive behavioral health services in order to—
(i)avert relapse, repeated hospitalizations, arrest, incarceration, suicide, property destruction, and violent behavior; and
(ii)provide such patient with the opportunity to live in a less restrictive alternative to incarceration or involuntary hospitalization; and
(4)the term “eligible patient” means an adult, mentally ill person who, as determined by a court—
(A)has a history of violence, incarceration, or medically unnecessary hospitalizations;
(B)without supervision and treatment, may be a danger to self or others in the community;
(C)is substantially unlikely to voluntarily participate in treatment;
(D)may be unable, for reasons other than indigence, to provide for any of his or her basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, health, or safety;
(E)has a history of mental illness or a condition that is likely to substantially deteriorate if the person is not provided with timely treatment; or
(F)due to mental illness, lacks capacity to fully understand or lacks judgment to make informed decisions regarding his or her need for treatment, care, or supervision.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was formerly classified to section 3796ii–1 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

Prior Provisions

A prior section 2202 of title I of Pub. L. 90–351, as added Pub. L. 103–322, title V, § 50001(a)(3), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1956, related to prohibition of participation by violent offenders, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 104–134, title I, § 101[(a)] [title I, § 114(b)(1)(A)], Apr. 26, 1996, 110 Stat. 1321, 1321–21; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 104–140, § 1(a), May 2, 1996, 110 Stat. 1327.

Amendments

2016—Pars. (3), (4). Pub. L. 114–255 added pars. (3) and (4).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

34 U.S.C. § 10472

Title 34Navy

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60