Report 2013-103 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2013-103: Armed Persons With Mental Illness: Insufficient Outreach From the Department of Justice and Poor Reporting From Superior Courts Limit the Identification of Armed Persons With Mental Illness (Release Date: October 2013)

Recommendation #4 To: Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles

To ensure that it is reporting all required individuals to Justice, Los Angeles Court should, by December 31, 2013, revise its new procedures at the Mental Health Courthouse to discuss quality control steps, such as a supervisory review and other monitoring processes, that would ensure that it is reporting all required determinations. Los Angeles Court should implement the revised procedures so that it reports all types of court determinations state law requires.

6-Month Agency Response

As of February 21, 2014, the Mental Health Court of the Los Angeles Superior Court has fully automated the process of the printing the required notices. Every firearm-related finding made by the Court is entered into the case management system by the Judicial Assistant recording the minutes, which automatically prints the notice to the Department of Justice and automatically enters the following language on the minute order: "Notice to Department of Justice is printed and sent via U.S. Mail."

The Mental Health Court Department of Justice Reporting Procedures Policy issued on July 7, 2013 has been amended to reflect the procedural changes above.

Upon implementation, management has continued to conduct reviews of minute orders manually. To date, minute orders were audited on February 27, 2014 and March 18, 2014. All minute orders showed 100% compliance with the DOJ Notice requirement.

The Mental Health Court is in full compliance with reporting firearms related matters to the Department of Justice.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The LASC is finalizing changes to the case management system that will link the case determination codes to the DOJ Notice code so that all required notices will be printed automatically. Upon completion of these programming changes, the Mental Health Court Department of Justice Reporting Procedures Policy issued on July 7, 2013 will be amended to reflect the procedural changes.

Until this is accomplished, management will continue to conduct monthly reviews of minute orders manually. To date, minute orders were audited on 09/23/13, 10/23/13 and 12/19/13 as follows:

On 09/23/13 - 3 days of minute orders from Departments 95, 95A and 95B were audited by the Administrator. All of the required Notices were printed on the three days sampled. However, several orders failed to include the language "DOJ Notice Printed." The Administrator verified that the DOJ Notice was in fact printed. The judicial assistants received corrective training.

On 10/23/13 - 3 days of minute orders from Departments 95, 95A and 95B were reviewed by the Administrator. All minute orders showed 100% compliance with the DOJ Notice requirement.

On 12/19/13 - 3 days of minute orders from Departments 95, 95A and 95B were reviewed by the Administrator. All minute orders showed compliance as to the DOJ Notice with the exception of one matter, which involved a highly unusual situation, for which the judicial assistants received additional corrective training.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

All Recommendations in 2013-103

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.