The Florida Senate

916.105  Legislative intent.--

(1)  It is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Children and Family Services establish, locate, and maintain separate and secure facilities and programs for the treatment or training of defendants who are charged with a felony and who have been found to be incompetent to proceed due to their mental illness, retardation, or autism, or who have been acquitted of felonies by reason of insanity, and who, while still under the jurisdiction of the committing court, are committed to the department under the provisions of this chapter. The separate, secure facilities shall be sufficient to accommodate the number of defendants committed under the conditions noted above, except those defendants found by the department to be appropriate for treatment or training in a civil treatment facility or program. Such secure 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.

(2)  It is further the intent of the Legislature that treatment or training programs for defendants who are found to be mentally ill, retarded, or autistic and are involuntarily committed to the department, and who are still under the jurisdiction of the committing court, be provided in such 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.

(3)  It is the intent of the Legislature that evaluation and services to defendants who are mentally ill, retarded, or autistic be provided in community settings, in community residential facilities, or in civil, nonforensic facilities, whenever this is a feasible alternative to treatment or training in a state forensic facility.

History.--s. 30, ch. 85-167; s. 5, ch. 98-92.