---
type: "Bill"
title: "Inpatient psychiatric hospital admission; defendant found incompetent."
description: "Removes the prohibition on inpatient psychiatric hospital admission for defendants who have already been ordered to receive treatment to restore their competency to stand trial. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 2462"
citation: "Virginia HB 2462 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert B. Bell"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-20"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e53abe92-0e4b-4e74-899e-de92e16c2f52"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB2462"
source_hash: "a75e15a9a3680f87c19cb7b83e66da33297434623e2ac543600dec0f21dc8531"
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-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2462 (2017) — Inpatient psychiatric hospital admission; defendant found incompetent.

Removes the prohibition on inpatient psychiatric hospital admission for defendants who have already been ordered to receive treatment to restore their competency to stand trial. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0468)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0468)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2462ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2462ER)
3. **House: Presented and ordered printed 17104544D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2462)

## Votes

- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **20–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **13–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Robert B. Bell — primary (person)
- Steve E. Heretick — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-20** Presented and ordered printed 17104544D `introduction`
- **2017-01-20** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-24** Assigned Courts sub: Mental Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-04** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-02-07** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Enrolled
- **2017-02-20** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-21** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 468 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e53abe92-0e4b-4e74-899e-de92e16c2f52`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).