Credit: (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

New Jersey would double the length of time people can be held in hospitals and emergency departments without their consent under a bill lawmakers are rushing through the Legislature.

The bill, up for final votes Friday after being introduced in the Senate earlier this month, would allow for hospitals and emergency departments to involuntarily detain a person for up to six days, so long as the medical teams obtain a temporary court order. The maximum amount of time a person can be kept legally without consent is three days.

Lawmakers are pressing to get the bill through the Legislature before the July 1 budget deadline because hospitals have told them there is a crisis with a shortage of beds and potential public safety concerns if some people are discharged without proper treatment.

The bill (S-3929/A-5182) was heard in committees last week and again on Tuesday.

The details

A hospital cannot detain a person for more than 72 hours from the time that a psychiatrist screens them, or issues a “screening certificate,” unless the hospital or emergency department gets a temporary court order that allows it to hold the person for up to 72 additional hours, according to the bill. The hospital, or an emergency department, could apply for a temporary court order and continue to hold the person while the application is pending. Additionally, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender would be notified of the application and  be required to represent the person in court, if the measure becomes law.

‘My feeling is less about the particular bill than the broader issue, which is again, we do not have enough facilities, we do not have enough beds, we do not have enough providers.’ —  Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Morris)

Each hospital and emergency department would also have to submit a quarterly report to the state Department of Human Services that includes the number of applications submitted to the court for a temporary order allowing for the continued hold of a person beyond 72 hours, the number of such temporary court orders granted, and whether the person kept for longer than three days has a “criminal history,” a co-occurring substance use disorder or a co-occurring intellectual or developmental disability, according to the bill.

The court could grant a temporary order that would allow for the hospital or emergency department to continue to hold a person beyond three days if the hospital has “exhausted all reasonable efforts” to place a person in a psychiatric facility or hospital and if there is a “substantial likelihood” that a person may hurt themselves or other people, after being examined by two psychiatrists who have determined that the person needs involuntarily commitment, according to the bill.

‘Complicated question’

“We know this is a complicated question, and there are very deep underlying issues undoubtedly for why there may be concern,” Ami Kachalia, a campaign strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said after testifying before the Assembly Budget Committee on Tuesday. “However, before we take this step and move forward, we think it’s important that there’s just more time, more conversations with stakeholders, and with the mental health and disability rights community built in.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, the ACLU of New Jersey asked that the law “sunset,” or end, after one year as opposed to two years, according to Kachalia.

“We feel that in that time, the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, [and] the Legislature, could all begin to study this problem more, to take steps to address concerns that might exist and that would give them sufficient time to do so without unduly lengthening this period of time where people can get involuntarily committed,” Kachalia said.

The bill is one piece in efforts to address the larger issue that hospitals face in treating mental health patients in New Jersey.

Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Morris), a member of the Assembly Budget Committee, said, “My feeling is less about the particular bill than the broader issue, which is again, we do not have enough facilities, we do not have enough beds, we do not have enough providers,” Dunn said. “And we know hospitals have closed, some of our psychiatric facilities have closed in the state. It’s not even a stopgap. It’s just addressing an emergent need, but it really isn’t addressing the problem overall.”