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Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Psychiatric and Mental Health

Prolonged Solitary Confinement And The Constitution, Jules Lobel Jan 2008

Prolonged Solitary Confinement And The Constitution, Jules Lobel

Articles

This Article will address whether the increasing practice of prolonged or permanent solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution, and whether it violates the due process rights of the prisoners so confined. It will not only look at United States case law, but at the jurisprudence of international human rights courts, commissions, and institutions. As the U.S. Supreme Court has noted, international jurisprudence can be helpful in determining the scope and meaning of broad terms in our Constitution such as “cruel and unusual punishments” or “due process,” as those terms ought to be understood in …


An Uncertain Privilege: Implied Waiver And The Eviseration Of The Psychotherapist Patient Privilege In The Feral Courts, Deirdre M. Smith Jan 2008

An Uncertain Privilege: Implied Waiver And The Eviseration Of The Psychotherapist Patient Privilege In The Feral Courts, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

Twelve years ago in Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996), the United States Supreme Court first recognized a federal common law psychotherapist-patient privilege and held that federal courts must protect confidential communications arising in psychotherapy despite the "likely evidentiary benefit" of such communications. This article examines the sharply conflicting authority in the federal courts that has developed since that landmark decision on the question of whether a plaintiff to a civil lawsuit waives the psychotherapist-patient privilege merely by seeking emotional distress damages. The federal courts' inconsistent and unprincipled approaches to this question renders the privilege itself nearly illusory and …