Can the Department of State Hospitals (DSH) hold me beyond my Maximum Discharge Date (MDD)?

Possibly. If you are classified as a MDO and you reach your maximum discharge date (your maximum parole term under state law, after which you must be discharged; see PG. 153), the DSH can seek to continue your mental health commitment. This means you would have to stay in inpatient treatment for one more year.[608]

If your MDO commitment is continued,the DSH can continue to seek re-commitment every year.[609] If the DSH seeks to continue your MDO commitment, you’ll be appointed an attorney and a jury trial in the county Superior Court. The district attorney will represent the DSH. At trial, the DSH must prove that you still meet MDO criteria — that you are (1) diagnosed with a serious mental illness that causes you to pose a substantial danger of physical harm to others, AND (2) were sentenced to prison for an offense involving violence.[610]

  1. 608

    Cal. Penal Code § 2970(a). ↑

  2. 609

    Cal. Penal Code § 2970. ↑

  3. 610

    The burden of proof in an MDO hearing is “beyond a reasonable doubt”—this means that in order for your to be re-committed, the district attorney must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that you are still both: (1) diagnosed with a serious mental illness that causes you to pose a substantial danger of physical harm to others AND (2) were sentenced to prison for an offense involving violence. Cal. Penal Code § 2970. ↑