When a defendant is committed to a state hospital by reason of reason of insanity after having been found not guilty of a crime, what is the current commitment period?

When a person is committed to a state hospital after having been found not guilty by reason of insanity, the commitment term runs until sanity is restored ( 1026.2) or until the maximum state prison term which could have been imposed for the offenses the defendant committed has expired, whichever occurs first. ( 1026.5(a)(1); 1026.1.) For obvious reasons of public safety, section 1026.5(b) qualifies these restrictions. Under section 1026.5(b), even after the maximum term has expired, the court may extend commitment at two-year intervals where the defendant has been convicted of a felony and has a mental disease which causes him to "represent a substantial danger of physical harm to others." Accordingly, the resolution of a section 1026.5(b) proceeding will often turn on whether the respondent represents a substantial danger of physical harm to others. (See People v. Jenkins (1985) 168 Cal.App.3d 41, 46, 213 Cal.Rptr. 904.) ⁴