LD 29
pg. 1
LD 29 Title Page An Act To Provide Justice to Those Found Not Guilty Due to Mental Disease or De... Page 2 of 6
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LR 395
Item 1

 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

 
Sec. 1. 15 MRSA §104-A, as corrected by RR 1995, c. 2, §§29 and 30
and amended by PL 2003, c. 689, Pt. B, §§6 and 7, is further
amended to read:

 
§104-A. Release and discharge; hearing; payment of fees

 
1. Release and discharge. The term "release," as used in
this section, means termination of institutional in-patient
inpatient residency and return to permanent residency in the
community. The head of the institution in which a person is
placed, under section 103, shall, annually, forward to the
Commissioner of Health and Human Services a report containing the
opinion of a staff psychiatrist as to the mental conditions of
that person, stating specifically whether the person may be
released or discharged without likelihood that the person will
cause injury to that person or to others due to mental disease or
mental defect. The report must also contain a brief statement of
the reasons for the opinion. The commissioner shall immediately
file the report in the Superior Court for the county in which the
person is hospitalized. The court shall review each report and,
if it is made to appear by the report that any person may be
ready for release or discharge, the court shall set a date for
and hold a hearing on the issue of the person's readiness for
release or discharge. The court shall give notice of the hearing
and mail a copy of the report to the Attorney General, offices of
the district attorney prosecutorial office that prosecuted the
criminal charges for which the person was acquitted found not
criminally responsible by reason of insanity mental disease or
mental defect and the offices of the district attorneys in whose
district the release petition was filed or in whose district
release may occur. At the hearing, the court shall receive the
testimony of at least one psychiatrist who has treated the person
and of a member of the State Forensic Service who has examined
the person, the testimony of any independent psychiatrist or
licensed clinical psychologist who is employed by the prosecuter
prosecutor or the petitioner and has examined the person and any
other relevant testimony. If, after hearing, the court finds
that the person may be released or discharged without likelihood
that the person will cause injury to that person or to others due
to mental disease or mental defect, the court shall order, as
applicable:

 
A. Release from the institution, provided that if:

 
(1) The order for release may include includes conditions
determined appropriate by the court, including, but not limited
to, out-patient outpatient treatment and supervision by the
Department of Health


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