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By California Co-Chair Carla Jacobs

Assembly Bill 1421 could have saved his life - swift passage is critical to prevent other tragedies

FRESNO, CALIF. - Fresno County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Phelps was on the street only one week before meeting his death - shot in the face by a man with a history of untreated severe mental illness, a man who had stopped taking his medication, a man whose family had only 2 weeks before advocated against his discharge from the psychiatric ward

Mark Charles Volpa, 21, allegedly faced down Deputy Phelps and killed him. Just as Ramadan Abdur-Rauf Abdullah, 20, allegedly faced down Fresno County Sheriff's Deputy Eric Telen and killed him only 9 months ago.

If not for an anachronism of a law, the state could have stepped in to prevent both these tragedies. But instead, we added Deputy Telen's name to both the Fresno County and California Peace Officers' Memorials, where it will soon be joined by Deputy Phelp's.

California's governing law in this area is the 30-year-old Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS). Because the law ignores what has been learned about mental illnesses and the vastly improved medications that have been developed for them over the last three decades, LPS now champions the "right" to be sick over the right to be well. People like Volpa have effectively been granted the "right" to be in unimpeded crisis on the streets.

One solution - a way to help people before they become dangerous - is the swift passage of Assembly Bill 1421, a proposed common-sense law that would more effectively meet society's obligation to help people who cannot help themselves. It passed the Assembly 65-1 and is now perched at the Senate's door.

On June 12th AB 1421 will be considered by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which is likely to be the bill's toughest test.

Unless an immediate danger to themselves or others or virtually comatose, current law allows someone with a severe mental illness who is in crisis to refuse needed medication, even if that refusal is based on delusions caused by the disease. This leads to the revolving door that is so commonly known to family members - short-term hospital admissions, jailings, homelessness, and far too often, suicide and even violence. And when someone is discharged, as Volpa was only 2 weeks before the murder, there is no procedure for mandated medication supervision, daily living structure and rehabilitative support to assist in recovery.

AB 1421 would make available to counties an intensive and supervised court-ordered treatment program that for many would mean stability and recovery. The standard of eligibility for the program would encompass not just those who are dangerous but also those who had been rendered incapable of making rational treatment decisions, people no doubt like Mark Charles Volpa.

Conservative estimates show that people with mental illnesses are killed in police altercations at a rate four times greater than the general population. The danger is not only to police, but far more often, to the people who are sick. Changing the law will save not only the lives of law enforcement, but the lives of the people they are sworn to help.

Passage of AB 1421 will also make a tremendous difference to California's estimated 50,000 homeless, approximately the same as the total population of Davis or San Rafael; to the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 inmates in California's jails and prisons with severe mental illness (L.A. County jail is de-facto the nation's largest psychiatric hospital); and to family members who each day struggle to find a ray of hope for their loved ones.

And Governor Davis' signature on the bill may very well ensure that Deputy Phelps is the last person whose name is added to a peace officers' memorial because California law protects the "right" to remain psychotic.

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