Agencies
Services
Statutory Responsibilities
Core Responsibilities:
IDHS’s treatment responsibilities within the forensic system are statutorily determined and include:
- Evaluation & Placement: Ensures timely, appropriate and least-restrictive placement that maximizes individual liberty while meeting safety, treatment, and legal needs.
- Coordinates least-restrictive placement for court-remanded adults and juveniles
- Reviews and authorizes emergency transfers to maximum security
- Conducts placement review of individual pending civil commitment at release from Illinois Department of Corrections
- Clinical Care & Restoration (Core Services): Oversees delivery of legally-informed treatment across the continuum of care.
- Delivers inpatient treatment for individuals evaluated as UST (Unfit to Stand Trial) or NGRI (Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity)
- Coordinates with approved outpatient providers to ensure proper UST or NGRI treatment
- System Oversight: Monitors individuals, ensures compliance, and oversees system integrity.
- Monitors individual status
- UST in outpatient restoration
- NGRI on conditional release
- Oversees programs and providers
- Juvenile residential and inpatient forensic programs
- Community hospital partners providing UST services
- Oversees facilities
- Sexually Violent Persons Treatment and Detention Facility
- Proposes legislative initiatives
- Proposes and reviews legislative proposals that impact forensic treatment system
- Proposes and reviews legislative proposals that impact forensic treatment system
- Monitors individual status
Applicable Statutes
The following are the relevant statutes that guide the coordination between the forensic treatment system and the legal system. References are made to these statutes throughout the handbook to orient system stakeholders, but the use of this handbook should not replace consulting the statute directly.
| Law | Legal Status | Article Topic (Law Source) |
|---|---|---|
| 725 ILCS 5/104 | UST | Fitness for trial, to plead or to be sentenced (Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963) Governs placement, IDHS notification, and the 60-day admission standard for individuals found Unfit to Stand Trial. |
| 725 ILCS 5/104-23(b)(3) | UST | Civil Commitment Pathway Applies when the court determines there is not a substantial probability of restoration to fitness. This process does not require a Pre-Placement Evaluation and is governed by the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. |
| 725 ILCS 5/104-21(c) | UST | Medication Petition (UST statute) The criminal court judge may ultimately sign an order authorizing involuntary medication, but only after following the legal procedures and due process protections set forth in the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code—not merely because the individual has a criminal case or has been found Unfit to Stand Trial. |
| 720 ILCS 5/6-2 | NGRI | Insanity (Criminal Code of 2012) A person is not criminally responsible for a crime if, because of a serious mental illness or intellectual disability, they were unable to understand that their actions were wrong at the time of the offense. |
| 730 ILCS 5/5-2-4 | NRGI | Proceedings after acquittal by reason of insanity (Uniform Code of Correction) Governs individuals found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). It explains how the court can order treatment, hospitalization, supervision, conditional release, or discharge for someone acquitted of a crime because of mental illness. |
| 725 ILCS 207 | SVP | Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act Allows the State to keep certain individuals in treatment and secure custody after their prison sentence ends if they have a mental disorder that makes them substantially likely to commit future acts of sexual violence. |
| 405 ILCS 5/3 | General | Admission, transfer, and discharge procedures for the mentally ill (Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code) Governs involuntary civil admission. Explains when a person with a mental illness can be hospitalized against their will because they are considered a danger to themselves, a danger to others, or unable to care for their basic physical needs due to their mental condition. |
| 405 ILCS 5/2-107.1 | General | Medication Petition from (Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code) Governs involuntary medication. Explains the legal process the court must follow before a person receiving mental health treatment can be given psychotropic medication against their will, including the evidence, testimony, and due process protections required under the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. |