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 the 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 , the district court may then order the inmate’s transfer to a facility, pursuant to the laws governing involuntary commitment, where the inmate shall remain until the executive director of the facility which received the inmate determines that the inmate has improved to the point that the inmate may be returned to the penal institution from which the inmate came without special jeopardy to the mental health of the inmate or the discipline and conduct of that institution. The costs incurred in transferring and treating 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 the prisoner is still mentally ill and a fit subject for commitment to a facility, the executive director 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 May 21, 1990; Amended by Laws 1990, c. 51, § 89 (repealed by Laws 1990, c. 337, § 26); Amended by Laws 2001, HB 1107, c. 186, § 14, eff. November 1, 2001 (superseded document available).