Conn. Gen. Stat. » Title 17a — SOCIAL AND HUMAN SERVICES AND RESOURCES · Chapter 319i — Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities
Connecticut General Statutes

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17a-495 (2026)

(Formerly Sec. 17-176). Definitions

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section CT-CGAcga.ct.gov (official) JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
(a) For the purposes of sections 17a-75 to 17a-83, inclusive, and 17a-615 to 17a-618, inclusive, the following terms shall have the following meanings: “Business day” means Monday to Friday, inclusive, except when a legal holiday falls on any such day; “hospital for psychiatric disabilities” means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, house or place in which any mentally ill person is received or detained as a patient, but shall not include any correctional institution of this state; “mentally ill person” means any person who has a mental or emotional condition which has substantial adverse effects on his or her ability to function and who requires care and treatment, and specifically excludes a person who is an alcohol-dependent person or a drug-dependent person, as defined in section 17a-680; “patient” means any person detained and taken care of as a mentally ill person; “keeper of a hospital for psychiatric disabilities” means any person, body of persons or corporation which has the immediate superintendence, management and control of a hospital for psychiatric disabilities and the patients therein; “support” includes all necessary food, clothing and medicine and all general expenses of maintaining state hospitals for persons with psychiatric disabilities; “indigent person” means any person who has an estate insufficient, in the judgment of the Court of Probate, to provide for his or her support and has no person or persons legally liable who are able to support him or her; “dangerous to himself or herself or others” means there is a substantial risk that physical harm will be inflicted by an individual upon his or her own person or upon another person, and “gravely disabled” means that a person, as a result of mental or emotional impairment, is in danger of serious harm as a result of an inability or failure to provide for his or her own basic human needs such as essential food, clothing, shelter or safety and that hospital treatment is necessary and available and that such person is mentally incapable of determining whether or not to accept such treatment because his judgment is impaired by his psychiatric disabilities. “Respondent” means a person who is alleged to be mentally ill and for whom an application for commitment to a hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities has been filed; “voluntary patient” means any patient sixteen years of age or older who applies in writing to and is admitted to a hospital for psychiatric disabilities as a mentally ill person or any patient under sixteen years of age whose parent or legal guardian applies in writing to such hospital for admission of such patient; “involuntary patient” means any patient hospitalized pursuant to an order of a judge of the Probate Court after an appropriate hearing or a patient hospitalized for emergency diagnosis, observation or treatment upon certification of a qualified physician.

(b) For the purposes of this section, sections 17a-450 to 17a-483, inclusive, 17a-496 to 17a-528, inclusive, 17a-540 to 17a-550, inclusive, and 17a-560 to 17a-575, inclusive, the following terms shall have the following meanings: “Business day” means Monday to Friday, inclusive, except when a legal holiday falls on any such day; “hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities” means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, house or place in which any person with psychiatric disabilities is received or detained as a patient, but shall not include any correctional institution of this state; “patient” means any person detained and taken care of as a person with psychiatric disabilities; “keeper of a hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities” means any person, body of persons or corporation which has the immediate superintendence, management and control of a hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities and the patients therein; “support” includes all necessary food, clothing and medicine and all general expenses of maintaining state hospitals for persons with psychiatric disabilities; “indigent person” means any person who has an estate insufficient, in the judgment of the Court of Probate, to provide for his or her support and has no person or persons legally liable who are able to support him or her; “dangerous to himself or herself or others” means there is a substantial risk that physical harm will be inflicted by an individual upon his or her own person or upon another person; “gravely disabled” means that a person, as a result of mental or emotional impairment, is in danger of serious harm as a result of an inability or failure to provide for his or her own basic human needs such as essential food, clothing, shelter or safety and that hospital treatment is necessary and available and that such person is mentally incapable of determining whether or not to accept such treatment because his judgment is impaired by his psychiatric disabilities; “respondent” means a person who is alleged to have psychiatric disabilities and for whom an application for commitment to a hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities has been filed; “voluntary patient” means any patient sixteen years of age or older who applies in writing to and is admitted to a hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities as a person with psychiatric disabilities or any patient under sixteen years of age whose parent or legal guardian applies in writing to such hospital for admission of such patient; and “involuntary patient” means any patient hospitalized pursuant to an order of a judge of the Probate Court after an appropriate hearing or a patient hospitalized for emergency diagnosis, observation or treatment upon certification of a qualified physician.

(c) For the purposes of this section and sections 17a-496 to 17a-528, inclusive, “person with psychiatric disabilities” means any person who has a mental or emotional condition which has substantial adverse effects on his or her ability to function and who requires care and treatment, and specifically excludes a person who is an alcohol-dependent person or a drug-dependent person, as defined in section 17a-680.

(d) For the purposes of sections 17a-453, 17a-454, 17a-456, 17a-458 to 17a-464, inclusive, 17a-466 to 17a-469, inclusive, 17a-471, 17a-474, 17a-476 to 17a-483, inclusive, 17a-540 to 17a-550, inclusive, 17a-560 to 17a-575, inclusive, and 17a-615 to 17a-618, inclusive, “person with psychiatric disabilities” means any person who has a mental or emotional condition which has substantial adverse effects on his or her ability to function and who requires care and treatment, and specifically includes a person who is an alcohol-dependent person or a drug-dependent person, as defined in section 17a-680.

(1949 Rev., S. 2643; 1955, S. 1487d; 1957, P.A. 408; 1963, P.A. 642, S. 13; 1967, P.A. 555, S. 66; 656, S. 13; P.A. 76-227, S. 1, 7; P.A. 77-4, S. 1, 2; 77-595, S. 1, 9; P.A. 79-515, S. 1; P.A. 80-483, S. 74, 186; P.A. 82-347, S. 1; P.A. 90-209, S. 15; P.A. 94-27, S. 1, 17; P.A. 95-257, S. 48, 51, 58; P.A. 09-145, S. 5; P.A. 15-120, S. 4; P.A. 18-86, S. 18; P.A. 22-69, S. 15.)

History: 1963 act substituted “state” for “county” jail; 1967 acts removed terms “state jail, prison,” “public reformatory or penal” and substituted word “correctional,” added “drug dependence” to definitions and to state institutions, and excluded drug-dependent persons from the definition of “mentally ill persons”; P.A. 76-227 redefined “mentally ill person” and excluded those whose sole disorder is alcoholism and defined “dangerous to himself or herself or others” and “gravely disabled”; P.A. 77-4 changed effective date of P.A. 76-227 from March 1, 1977, to October 1, 1977; P.A. 77-595 redefined “indigent person”, “dangerous to himself or herself or others” and “gravely disabled” and defined “respondent”; P.A. 79-515 defined “voluntary patient” and “involuntary patient”; P.A. 80-483 made technical changes; P.A. 82-347 added definition of “business day”; P.A. 90-209 deleted the definition of “drug-dependent person”, redefined “hospital for mental illness” to exclude places in which drug-dependent persons are received or detained as patients, redefined “mentally ill person” to exclude alcohol- dependent and drug-dependent persons rather than “persons whose psychiatric disorder is drug dependence ... or alcoholism” and redefined “support” to delete reference to the drug-dependent; Sec. 17-176 transferred to Sec. 17a-495 in 1991; P.A. 94-27 deleted reference to Secs. 17a-580 to 17a-603, inclusive, effective July 1, 1994; P.A. 95-257 added Subsecs. (b) to (d), inclusive, which repeated provisions of Subsec. (a) while replacing variants of term “mental illness” with “psychiatric disabilities” for the purposes of cited sections and replaced “mental illness” with “psychiatric disabilities”, effective July 1, 1995; P.A. 09-145 amended Subsec. (a) by replacing references to “institutions for the mentally ill” and “mental institution” with “hospitals for persons with psychiatric disabilities” and amended Subsec. (b) by replacing references to “institution for persons with psychiatric disabilities” with “hospital for persons with psychiatric disabilities” and by making a technical change; P.A. 15-120 amended Subsec. (d) by deleting reference to Sec. 17a-452 and making a conforming change; P.A. 18-86 amended Subsec. (b) by replacing reference to Sec. 17a-495 with reference to Sec. 17a-496, and replacing reference to Sec. 17a-576 with reference to Sec. 17a-575, amended Subsec. (c) by replacing reference to Sec. 17a-495 with reference to Sec. 17a-496, amended Subsec. (d) by replacing “17a-453 to 17a-454, inclusive,” with “17a-453, 17a-454,”, and replacing reference to Sec. 17a-576 with reference to Sec. 17a-575, and made technical changes, effective June 4, 2018; P.A. 22-69 amended Subsecs. (b) and (d) by replacing “17a-484” with “17a-483”, effective May 24, 2022.

Annotations to former section 17-176:

Cited. 142 C. 329. Definition of “mentally ill person” is not limited to person who requires treatment for welfare of others but includes one who requires treatment for his own welfare; hence continued confinement of dementia praecox patient who maimed himself under religious delusions was proper. 157 C. 56. Cited. 158 C. 164; 173 C. 473.

Cited. 31 CS 197.

(Return to Chapter
Table of Contents)		 (Return to
List of Chapters)		 (Return to
List of Titles)

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 21 cases (7 in the last 5 years), 2002–2025 · leading case: State v. March, 830 A.2d 212 (Conn. 2003).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
State v. March, 830 A.2d 212 (Conn. 2003). · cites it 27× “3 The defendant claims that the trial court improperly: (1) failed to apply the civil commitment standards for defining mental illness and dangerousness as set forth in General Statutes § 17a-495 4 in determining whether the defendant was a person with “psychiatric disabilities”…”
State v. Jacob, 798 A.2d 974 (Conn. App. Ct. 2002). · cites it 6× “General Statutes § 17a-495 (a) and (b) provide in relevant part that “ ‘dangerous to himself or herself or others’ means there is a substantial risk that physical harm will be inflicted by an individual upon his or her own person or upon another person . . . .” We see no reason…”
State v. Harris, 890 A.2d 559 (Conn. 2006). · cites it 4× “A The acquittee first claims that the trial court should have excluded the report because the board improperly used the definition of dangerousness set forth in § 17a-581-2 (a) (6) of the Regulations of Comecticut State Agencies instead of the definition set forth in General…”
State v. Long, 847 A.2d 862 (Conn. 2004). · cites it 2× “In order fully to address the state’s claims, we must also consider the relationship between the statutory commitment scheme for acquittees and the statutory commitment scheme for civil committees, as set forth in General Statutes §§ 17a-495 through 17a-528.”
State v. Kalman, 868 A.2d 766 (Conn. App. Ct. 2005). · cites it 5× “The acquittee argues that the court’s findings are not psychiatric disabilities or mental illness because General Statutes § 17a-495 (a) and (c), 10 definitions found in the statutory scheme for civil commitments, apply and specifically exclude alcohol dependent and…”
State v. Warren, 919 A.2d 465 (Conn. App. Ct. 2007). · cites it 4× “Among the claims raised by the acquittee on appeal was that the court “failed to apply the civil commitment standards for defining mental illness and dangerousness as set forth in General Statutes § 17a-495 in determining whether [she] was a person with ‘psychiatric…”
State v. Jenkins, 954 A.2d 806 (Conn. 2008). · cites it 2× “Compare General Statutes § 54-56d with General Statutes §§ 17a-75 through 17a-83 (procedures for commitment of mentally ill children), General Statutes (Rev.”
United States v. Christopher Perkins, 67 F.4th 583 (4th Cir. 2023). · cites it 2× “”); Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 17a-495(b) (West 2022) (“For the purpose of [Section 17a-498] .”
State v. Green, 804 A.2d 810 (Conn. 2002). “ection (c) of section 21a-279, section 53a-58, 53a-61, 53a-61a, 53a-62, 53a-63, 53a-96, 53a-175, 53a-176, 53a-178 or 53a-181d, (2) has been discharged from custody within the preceding twenty years after having been found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or…”
State v. Parrott, 811 A.2d 705 (Conn. 2003). “ection (c) of section 21a-279, section 53a-58, 53a-61, 53a-61a, 53a-62, 53a-63, 53a-96, 53a-175, 53a-176, 53a-178 or 53a-181d, (2) has been discharged from custody within the preceding twenty years after having been found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or…”
State v. Hilton, 829 A.2d 890 (Conn. App. Ct. 2003). “onvicted as delinquent for the commission of a serious juvenile offense, as defined in section 46b-120, (3) has been discharged from custody within the preceding twenty years after having been found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or defect pursuant to section…”
In Re Nesbitt, 5 A.3d 518 (Conn. App. Ct. 2010). “onvicted as delinquent for the commission of a serious juvenile offense, as defined in section 46b-120, (4) has been discharged from custody within the preceding twenty years after having been found not guilty of a crime by reason of mental disease or defect pursuant to section…”
Show all 21 citing cases →
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17a-495(a): 1 case
Allen v. Sidaros (D. Conn. 2022).
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17a-495(b): 1 case
United States v. Christopher Perkins, 67 F.4th 583 (4th Cir. 2023). “”); Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 17a-495(b) (West 2022) (“For the purpose of [Section 17a-498] .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.