The Florida Senate

It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Children and Family Services and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, as appropriate, establish, locate, and maintain separate and secure forensic facilities and programs for the treatment or training of defendants who have been charged with a felony and who have been found to be incompetent to proceed due to their mental illness, mental retardation, or autism, or who have been acquitted of a felony by reason of insanity, and who, while still under the jurisdiction of the committing court, are committed to the department or agency under the provisions of this chapter. Such facilities shall be sufficient to accommodate the number of defendants committed under the conditions noted above. Except for those defendants found by the department or agency to be appropriate for treatment or training in a civil facility or program pursuant to subsection (3), forensic facilities shall be designed and administered so that ingress and egress, together with other requirements of this chapter, may be strictly controlled by staff responsible for security in order to protect the defendant, facility personnel, other clients, and citizens in adjacent communities.

It is the intent of the Legislature that treatment or training programs for defendants who are found to have mental illness, mental retardation, or autism and are involuntarily committed to the department or agency, and who are still under the jurisdiction of the committing court, be provided in a manner, subject to security requirements and other mandates of this chapter, as to ensure the rights of the defendants as provided in this chapter.

It is the intent of the Legislature that evaluation and services to defendants who have mental illness, mental retardation, or autism be provided in community settings, in community residential facilities, or in civil facilities, whenever this is a feasible alternative to treatment or training in a state forensic facility.

It is the intent of the Legislature to minimize and achieve an ongoing reduction in the use of restraint and seclusion on persons who are committed to a civil or forensic facility under this chapter.