Prison mental health panel lacks leadership

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Frustration with a council that is supposed to advise the prison system, state agencies and law enforcement about mental health treatment has led the California Senate leader to call for changes in how it operates and how it is overseen.

The Council on Mentally Ill Offenders has been without an executive director for more than two years, and its volunteer members say they cannot meet the council’s obligations on their own. As a result, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is proposing to switch oversight from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to the Board of State and Community Corrections.