The group of North Carolina senators on Wednesday endorsed changes to the state\u2019s process for evaluating criminal suspects for mental illness that have been proposed by the House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Senate Healthcare Committee gave a favorable report to House Bill 1104<\/a>, which attempts to shift some mental evaluations out of emergency departments and expand the number of people who can conduct them. The bill would also allow more North Carolinians who are under involuntary commitment orders to undergo mental health treatment outside of psychiatric facilities. The bill goes next to the Senate Judiciary Committee for further review.<\/p>\n The House passed the bill 100-10 earlier this month at the urging of state Rep. Tim Reeder, a Pitt County Republican and physician who wrote the legislation after holding multiple hearings on the state\u2019s practices for treating criminal suspects who suffer from mental illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reeder and others in the House began reviewing the state\u2019s laws after the August death of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian who moved to Charlotte in 2022 and was fatally stabbed on a city train. DeCarlos Brown, the man charged in her death, was deemed incapable of proceeding<\/a> following a mental evaluation.<\/p>\n The General Assembly in October approved a judicial reform package titled \u201cIryna\u2019s Law,\u201d an attempt to keep more suspects in custody while awaiting trial. Brown had been arrested multiple times prior to Zarutska\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, legislators faced pushback<\/a> for some of the new rules. For instance, hospital representatives took issue with a requirement for certain criminal defendants \u2014 who have undergone an involuntary commitment within three years of their arrest for a violent crime, or who judicial officials believe to be a danger to themselves or others \u2014 to be transported \u201cto a hospital emergency department or other crisis facility\u201d for a psychiatric evaluation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hospital leaders said they don\u2019t want the suspects evaluated in emergency departments, fearing they could endanger patients and hospital staff. Hospital leaders said the evaluations should be conducted in jails \u2014 a suggestion Reeder incorporated<\/a> into his bill.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wouldn’t want someone who has a violent history sitting next to your child who’s getting treated for an ear infection,\u201d Reeder told members of the Senate Health Committee Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n