Under equal protection principles, defendant is entitled to custody credits for time spent in state hospital after the trial court found him incompetent to stand trial. On appeal, defendant requested a recalculation of his custody credit to include time spent in state hospital receiving competency treatment. Held: Remanded for recalculation of credits. Penal Code section 4019 provides that defendants confined in specific facilities and in various settings may earn conduct credit. In 2018, Senate Bill No. 1187 amended section 4019 to allow defendants receiving competency treatment in county jail treatment facilities, but not in state hospitals, to receive conduct credit. When evaluating defendant’s equal protection claim, the court held defendant was similarly situated to those confined to a county jail treatment facility, disagreeing with People v. Orellana (2022) 74 Cal.App.5th 319. Agreeing with the strict scrutiny analysis applied in People v. Yang (2022) 78 Cal.App.5th 120, the court held there was no lawful justification for disparate treatment of such individuals. As such, defendant is entitled to conduct credit for his time in state hospital. [Editor’s Note: Senate Bill No. 317 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.) now permits defendants receiving competency treatment in state hospitals to receive conduct credit.]

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: https://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C096266.PDF