An 11-year lawsuit that helped transform how California cares for people who have committed crimes and struggle with mental illness has come to a quiet conclusion.
In a five-page order issued last Monday, Judge S. Raj Chatterjee of Contra Costa County wrote that the state created a new treatment program for people who are arrested and deemed to be incompetent to stand trial, added more than 2,000 state hospital beds to care for them, and secured a permanent source of funding.
Taken together, the state’s efforts “demonstrate a commitment to providing substantive services,” the judge wrote…