Bill to limit prison off-ramp for California's mentally ill advancing - Los Angeles Times ^35.3%

Los Angeles Times - By James Queally - 6/18/2026, 10:00 AM

Appeal to Emotion 29.3% - Anecdotal 25.9% - Availability Heuristic 18.4%

A bill to tighten California's rules on mental health diversion — a process that allows certain criminal defendants to avoid prison for arrests linked to mental illness — is now on the verge of being signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Assembly Bill 46, authored by Stephanie Nguyen (D-Elk Grove), gives judges much wider discretion to... more