Gov. Gavin Newsom is defending his controversial CARE Court Initiative, which begins next month in seven California counties.
The pilot program will allow judges to order people with psychotic disorders into mental health treatment, including therapy and medication. The court-ordered treatment is technically voluntary, but if patients refuse to comply, they could be referred for a conservatorship.
Critics say coercing people into treatment will deprive them of civil liberties and ultimately harm their mental health. Lili Graham from Disability Rights California told CalMatters the program would “unravel decades of progress for people with disabilities to have the same civil rights of everyone else.”
But on 60 Minutes Sunday night, Newsom hit back at critics, saying conservatorships are nothing new.
“We have people that end up in a conservatorship all the time,” he said. “I get why people don’t want to see more of those, but we have that system already.”
Although CARE Courts aren’t aimed specifically at unhoused people, Newsom frames the program as a way to address homelessness. About a quarter of the 170,000 people living on California’s streets have a serious mental illness.
The CARE Court Initiative specifies that judges can order a person to receive housing as part of their treatment plan, but Newsom said he couldn’t promise that would happen. Rather, he said he’s “promoting a promise where there’s accountability at the local level.”
The Newsom administration invested about $17 billion this year for homelessness and mental health, but leaders in many counties say the money earmarked for CARE Court isn’t enough to cover housing and treatment for the thousands of people who will be referred.
In response, Newsom implied that county officials should figure that out for themselves.
“Spare me, honestly,” he said. “The only thing limiting people is an unwillingness to be accountable, and I’m just done with that.”
The governor said the current system for mental health care isn’t working, and even if CARE Court doesn’t work out, “the biggest risk is that we don’t take one.”
The program begins next month in Orange, Riverside, and five other counties before launching in Los Angeles County in December.
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