A new California law championed by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office requires mental health evaluators to weigh specific risk factors before deciding whether to release offenders with serious psychiatric disorders.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1897 before Monday, Sept. 28, according to a press release from the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. The DA's office, which serves Murrieta and communities across Riverside County, advocated for the measure to close gaps in how the state evaluates mentally disordered offenders, or MDOs.

Under prior state law, psychiatrists and psychologists assessing whether an MDO posed a danger to others were not explicitly required to consider factors such as the person's violence history, current mental state, recent behavior, treatment response, age or physical ability to cause harm. AB 1897 now mandates those criteria be part of every evaluation.

Prosecutors called the gap a statewide problem.

"California MDO laws play an important role in protecting the public, but our experience has shown that the current laws pose gaps that can make it difficult to adequately assess the danger posed by some offenders," Chief Deputy District Attorney Ivy Fitzpatrick said in the Sept. 28 press release. Fitzpatrick serves as the office's legislative representative.

Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, authored the bill. Haney said earlier in 2026 that AB 1897 was inspired by a San Francisco case in which a repeat offender with a history of alleged groping, stalking and harassing women received conflicting expert evaluations. Those evaluations led to his release, and he was later arrested again after allegedly continuing similar behavior, Patch reported.

Evaluators can still use their professional judgment and any additional assessments they consider necessary under the new law, according to Patch.

AB 1897 is separate from AB 1741, the Safe at Home Act, another bill backed by the Riverside County DA's Office that addressed sexual offenses committed in victims' homes.

No effective date for AB 1897 appears in available public records.