Whenever, in the opinion of the Director of State Hospitals and with the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, any person who has been committed to a state hospital pursuant to provisions of the Penal Code or who has been placed in a state hospital temporarily for observation pursuant to, or who has been committed to a state hospital pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 6300) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 6 of this code needs care and treatment under conditions of custodial security which can be better provided within the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the person may be transferred for those purposes from an institution under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals to an

institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Persons so transferred shall not be subject to the provisions of Section 4500, 4501, 4501.5, 4502, 4530, or 4531 of the Penal Code. However, they shall be subject to the general rules of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and of the facility where they are confined and any correctional employee dealing with those persons during the course of an escape or attempted escape, a fight or a riot, shall have the same rights, privileges and immunities as if the person transferred had been committed to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Whenever a person is transferred to an institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation pursuant to this section, any report, opinion, or certificate required or authorized to be filed with the court which

committed the person to a state hospital, or ordered the person placed therein, shall be prepared and filed with the court by the head of the institution in which the person is actually confined or by the designee of the head of the institution.

Patients admitted to a state hospital prior to July 1, 1969, and all patients judicially committed or remanded, may be transferred to a like institution at the request of relatives or friends, if there is room in the like institution to which transfer is sought and if the department or departments having jurisdiction over such institutions and the medical directors of the institutions from which and to which the transfer is to be made consent thereto. The expense of such transfer shall be paid by such relatives or friends.

Whenever a person, committed to the care of the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services under one of the commitment laws which provides for reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment of the person, is transferred under Section 7300 to an institution under the jurisdiction of the department where the state rather than the county is liable for the support and care of patients, the county of commitment may have the original commitment vacated and a new commitment issued, designating the institution to which the person has been transferred, in order to absolve the county from liability under the original commitment.

Whenever a person, committed to the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services under one of the commitment laws providing for no reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment, is transferred under Section 6700 to an institution under the jurisdiction of the department where the county is required to reimburse the state for such care and treatment, the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services may have the original commitment vacated and a new commitment issued, designating the institution to which the person has been transferred, in order to make the county liable for the care and treatment of the committed person to the extent provided by Sections 7511

and 7512.

return from leave of absence has been authorized or ordered by the State Department of State Hospitals, or the State Department of Developmental Services, or the facility of the Veterans’ Administration, any peace officer, upon written request of the state hospital, veterans’ facility, or the facility designated by a county, or the patient’s conservator appointed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of Part 1 of Division 5, shall, without the necessity of a warrant or court order, or any officer or employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, or of the State Department of Developmental Services, designated to perform these duties may, apprehend, take into custody, and deliver the patient to the state hospital or to a facility of the Veterans’ Administration, or the facility designated by a county, or to any person or place authorized by the State Department of State Hospitals, the State Department of Developmental Services, the Veterans’ Administration, the local director of the

county mental health program of the county in which is located the facility designated by the county, or the patient’s conservator appointed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of Part 1 of Division 5, as the case may be, to receive him or her. Every officer or employee of the State Department of State Hospitals, or of the State Department of Developmental Services, designated to apprehend or return those patients has the powers and privileges of peace officers so far as necessary to enforce this section.

with any information concerning any patient who escapes from the hospital or facility that is necessary to assist in the apprehension and return of the patient. The written notification of the escape required by this section shall include the name and physical description of the patient, his or her home address, the degree of dangerousness of the patient, including specific information about the patient if he or she is deemed likely to cause harm to himself or herself or to others, and any additional information that is necessary to apprehend and return the patient. If the escapee has been charged with any crime involving physical harm to children, the notice shall be provided by the law enforcement agency to school districts in the vicinity of the hospital or other facility in which the escapee was being held, in the area the escapee is known or is likely to frequent, and in the area where the escapee resided immediately prior to confinement.

Notwithstanding Section 5328, information regarding a person’s name, reason for commitment, age, physical description, and any other information which the medical director of the treatment facility considers essential in aiding apprehension of the escapee shall be released if the person has escaped from a state mental health facility, and the person was committed to the state mental health facility by a court after being found not guilty by reason of insanity pursuant to Section 1026 of the Penal Code, unable to stand trial due to mental condition pursuant to Section 1370 of the Penal Code, or a mentally disordered sex offender pursuant to Division 6 (commencing with Section 6000).

Any person who willfully assists any judicially committed or remanded patient of a state hospital or other public or private mental health facility to escape, to attempt to escape therefrom, or to resist being returned from a leave of absence shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code, a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both such imprisonment and fine; or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, a fine of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000), or both such imprisonment and fine.

Every peace officer who is designated in and pursuant to Section 7325 delivers or assists in the delivery of a patient to a state hospital or other place designated by a state hospital shall be entitled to receive from the state hospital such fees and expenses as are payable to sheriffs for conveyance of patients to state hospitals.

Whenever a person who is committed to an institution subject to the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals or the State Department of Developmental Services, under one of the commitment laws that provides for reimbursement for care and treatment to the state by the county of commitment of the person, is accused of committing a crime while confined in the institution and is committed by the court in which the crime is charged to another institution under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals or the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the state rather than the county of commitment shall bear the subsequent cost of supporting and caring for the person.

state hospital may care for and treat the person, and the district attorney of the county in which the person is present immediately shall present to a judge of the superior court a petition asking that the person be judicially committed to a state hospital in this state. The hearing on the petition shall be held within seven days after the court’s determination in the original hearing that the person did escape from a public mental hospital in another state within five years prior to his apprehension. Proceedings shall thereafter be conducted as on a petition for judicial commitment of the particular type of person subject to judicial commitment. If the court finds that the person is subject to judicial commitment it shall order him or her judicially committed to a state hospital in this state; otherwise, it shall order him or her to be released. It shall be the duty of the superintendent of the state hospital to accept custody of the person, if he or she has been determined to be subject to judicial

commitment. The State Department of State Hospitals will promptly cause the person to be returned to the institution from which he or she escaped if the authorities in charge of the institution agree to accept him or her. If the authorities refuse to accept the person, the superintendent of the state hospital in which the person is confined shall continue to care for and treat the person in the same manner as any other person judicially committed to the hospital as having a mental health disorder.