WASHINGTON (TNND) — A California mental health diversion law allows for people facing criminal indictments to forgo criminal proceedings and even have the charges wiped from their record if they successfully complete a court-approved treatment program.
Passed in 2018, SB 215 was created to extend relief to people who say that their mental illness contributed to their decision to commit a crime. Any mental illness listed in the DSM-5 is qualified for the diversion program with the only exceptions being antisocial personality disorder and pedophilia.
Crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual abuse of children and other sex crimes which require a person to be registered are also exempt from the program. However, there are at least two known cases in Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office in which a child was beaten to death in which their parents were admitted into the diversion program, Fox News Digital reported. A one-year-old baby girl was beaten to death by her father and a 20-month old boy died after bearing 49 injuries at the hands’ of his parents…