Sacramento - The California State Assembly has approved Assembly Bill 2357 by Assemblymember Betty Karnette (D – Long Beach) on a broad, bipartisan vote of 65-11.

As a result, the State of California is one step away from extending Laura’s Law, the statute that allows counties to enforce Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) orders for some potentially dangerous mentally ill patients. The law is named for Laura Wilcox, a 19-year old high school valedictorian, who was killed in 2001 by a man who was suffering from serious delusional paranoia.

“It is essential that we extend Laura’s Law because it helps us prevent mentally ill offenders and patients from falling through the cracks of our mental health and public safety systems,” said Karnette. “We need this extension so that Laura’s Law has a chance to prove its value.”

AB 2357 would extend Laura’s Law for an additional five years, until January 1, 2013. The measure now proceeds to the Governor’s desk for final action. Karnette is optimistic that the Governor will endorse her proposed extension. Laura’s Law ensures that court-ordered help reaches mental health patients who are not complying with voluntary treatment programs, have a history of hospitalization, arrest or violent behavior and may be dangerous to themselves or others.

Laura’s father, Nick Wilcox, is leading the grassroots effort to extend this key safety statute.

“Laura’s mother and I believe that if the provisions of Laura’s Law had been available to the family of Laura’s killer, then she might still be alive today,” said Wilcox. “As a society we have a duty to provide treatment in the least restrictive setting before people harm themselves or others and that’s all that the Laura’s Law extension in AB 2357 really does.”

Before Laura’s Law, the only alternative for noncompliant patients who were suicidal or potentially homicidal was to arrest or hospitalize them.  That approach was inefficient, ineffective and dangerous.

Los Angeles County has provided the best example of how to incorporate Laura's Law.  The County’s limited pilot program has produced treatment and budgetary improvements. Using savings generated by the transfers, the county was also able to establish a program in which mental health teams closely followed a small number of seriously mentally ill people after their discharge from jail.