Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Prevention Not Punishment

Criminal Law

: Prevention Not Punishment

Mental Health-Related Actions of the 80th Texas Legislature

By Kristin Houle

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health recently released its "Legislative Update: A Guide to the Mental Health-Related Actions of the 80th Texas Legislature." This summary of mental health-related actions by the 80th Texas Legislature is now available online: http://www.hogg.utexas.edu/session80.html.It includes information about mental-health related legislation in such areas as criminal justice, appropriations for public mental health services, juvenile justice, health insurance, and civil commitment proceedings. Of most relevance to this blog is the summary of attempts to reform Texas' insanity defense statute (pp. 44-45), which were not successful. House Bill 2795, authored by Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), sought to change the language of the current insanity defense to allow for a more thorough inquiry into how mental illness impacts a defendant's capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his or her conduct...continue to full post

Full post as published by Prevention Not Punishment on January 07, 2008 (boomark / email).