When a person confined in a penal or correctional institution or reformatory of this state is evaluated as provided by law by either the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services or the Department of Corrections to be mentally ill and said inmate is in need of observation and treatment on account of mental illness, and that such observation and treatment cannot be properly carried out by the Department of Corrections Special Care Unit, the district court may then order his transfer to a state mental institution, pursuant to the laws governing involuntary commitment, where he shall remain until the superintendent of the hospital which received him advises the Commissioner of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services that his condition has so far improved that he may be returned to the institution from which he came without special jeopardy to his mental health or the discipline and conduct of that institution. The costs incurred in transferring the prisoner shall be borne by the penal institution. If the sentence expires during the time of a prisoner's stay in the mental institution, and he is still mentally ill and a fit subject for commitment to a state institution, the superintendent shall immediately instigate proceedings for commitment under one of the procedures provided in this title.

Added by Laws 1953, p. 166, § 61; Amended by Laws 1979, c. 106, § 1; Amended by Laws 1986, c. 103, § 54, eff. November 1, 1986; Renumbered from § 61 by Laws 1986, c. 103, § 103, eff. November 1, 1986; Amended by Laws 1990, c. 245, § 2, emerg. eff. May 21, 1990; Amended by Laws 1990, c. 51, § 89 (repealed by Laws 1990, c. 337, § 26).