This week in the news
New legislation aims to improve mental health system and campus security
In the wake of last year’s Virginia Tech shootings,
bills to improve campus security and to shore up gaps
in the commonwealth’s mental-health system were
signed Wednesday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
The legislation is meant to improve the mentalhealth
system’s oversight and accountability. The
system came under fire last year after a mentally
disturbed student killed 32 people and himself at
Virginia Tech on April 16.
The shooter was ruled a danger to himself during
a commitment hearing in 2005 and was ordered
to receive outpatient mental-health care-but he
never got it.
Prior to the bill’s approval, a person proven to be
an “imminent danger” to himself or others could be
forced into treatment. The legislation changes that
standard to a “substantial likelihood.”
The bills also extend the time a person can be
detained for observation, allow better sharing of
mental-health records and require representatives
of local community-services boards to participate
in commitment hearings.
Universities also will be required to develop
emergency-management plans and to establish
threat-assessment teams.
Brief by the Associated Press
Possible mad-cow-disease case under investigation
A possible case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease – a
rare brain disorder linked to eating beef from cattle
infected with mad-cow disease – is being investigated
by Virginia health officials.
A spokesman with the Virginia health department
emphasized that officials are still uncertain of the
diagnosis of the possible victim, a patient at Bon
Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth.
Officials said the condition is not spread through
casual contact, and not every form of the disease in
contagious.
Three U.S. cases linked to “mad cow” have been
recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to date. The condition has killed more
than 150 people worldwide, most of them in Great
Britain.
Brief by the Associated Press
Jail crowding reaches all-time high because of residency checks
Crowding at the Prince William County jail has
reached an all-time high because of new local policies
that require residency checks of inmates suspected of
being in the country illegally, jail officials said.
Jail board Chairman Patrick Hurd wrote in recent
letters to local officials and the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement that the new policies
are straining jail employees, and the jail is spending
more than $220,000 a month to house prisoners
elsewhere.
This past July, local law-enforcement officers
formed a partnership with ICE, which allowed them
to receive training in processing suspected illegal
immigrants. ICE agents are supposed to pick up the
suspects within 72 hours. However, Hurd said agents
are taking weeks to pick up the suspects.
ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said the agency
is pledging to step up its commitment.
Brief by the Associated Press
