The California created the new legal category of mentally disordered offender in 1985. The law applied to any incarcerated offender sentenced for violence who had been diagnosed as having a severe mental disorder that had been a factor in the crime and had also been apparent and treated during imprisonment, who would soon be eligible for parole, and whose mental illness had not been brought into remission by treatment. Each such individual was to be diverted to Atascadero State Hospital for involuntary treatment. The typical MDO has poor genetic endowment, lifelong malnutrition and trauma, family and social disorganization, poor education, little or no employment, profuse drug use, extensive socialization into crime, avoidance of community resources, and intermittent and ineffective involuntary treatment. The words that characterize the MDO phenomenon are rootlessness; chemicals, including both drug abuse and confusion in psychiatric diagnosis of MDOs; and warfare of an urban guerrilla nature. Many dilemmas and absurdities are involved in the interaction between the MDO population and the dominant culture. California has made a small beginning toward recognizing and addressing this group's characteristics, and other areas undoubtedly need to do the same.