---
type: "Bill"
title: "Inmates: psychiatric medication: informed consent."
description: "Existing law prohibits, except as specified, a person sentenced to imprisonment in a county jail from being administered any psychiatric medication without his or her prior informed consent. Existing law authorizes a county department of mental health, or other designated county department, to administer to an inmate involuntary medication on a nonemergency basis only after the inmate is provided, among other things, a hearing before a superior court judge, a court-appointed commissioner or referee, or a court-appointed hearing officer."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 720"
citation: "California AB 720 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Inmates: psychiatric medication: informed consent."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eggman"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 32
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-02-15"
last_action: "2017-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c9e11615-c6a8-4072-bd8f-1a4a71298ef1"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720"
source_hash: "0af9e3d578e12139c4caaa125e998baac8f5ac20506d95622d5bd3325a824a13"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 720 (20172018) — Inmates: psychiatric medication: informed consent.

Existing law prohibits, except as specified, a person sentenced to imprisonment in a county jail from being administered any psychiatric medication without his or her prior informed consent. Existing law authorizes a county department of mental health, or other designated county department, to administer to an inmate involuntary medication on a nonemergency basis only after the inmate is provided, among other things, a hearing before a superior court judge, a court-appointed commissioner or referee, or a court-appointed hearing officer.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/15/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72099INT)
2. **03/27/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72098AMD)
3. **04/17/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72097AMD)
4. **05/15/17 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72096AMD)
5. **06/06/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72095AMD)
6. **07/13/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72094AMD)
7. **09/07/17 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72093AMD)
8. **09/28/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72091CHP)
9. **AB720** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720)
10. **09/15/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB720&version=20170AB72092ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent Calendar # AB720 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 720 EGGMAN Assembly Third Reading — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 720 Eggman Special Consent Calendar 1st Day — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Eggman — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-15** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-16** From printer. May be heard in committee March 18.
- **2017-03-02** Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-27** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-03-28** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2017-04-06** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (April 4). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-04-17** Read second time and amended. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-04-18** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-05-01** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2017-05-11** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (May 9). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-05-15** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `reading-1, amendment-passage, reading-2`
- **2017-05-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1657.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-22** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-06-01** Referred to Coms. on PUB. S. and APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-2, reading-1, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-06-20** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2017-07-12** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 11). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2017-07-13** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-passage, reading-2, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2017-08-21** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-09-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (September 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-07** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2017-09-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-12** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2017-09-14** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2909.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-14** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2017-09-14** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2017-09-14** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3424.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2017-09-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 12 p.m.
- **2017-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 347, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c9e11615-c6a8-4072-bd8f-1a4a71298ef1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).