Law Commons^™

Involuntarily Committed Patients As Prisoners, Matt Lamkin, Carl Elliott

University of Richmond Law Review

Part I relates several stories of involuntarily committed patients who were recruited into studies posing serious risks. Part II draws on these cases to argue that the involuntary commitment of these patients leaves them vulnerable to unethical treatment by researchers. Their inherently coercive circumstances present an overwhelming obstacle to voluntary consent, and their captive status makes them attractive targets for research that could be performed using less vulnerable subjects.

Part III argues that most research on this patient population is improper under generally applicable principles of informed consent and fair subject selection. However, existing protections have proved insufficient to prevent …

Subtly Selling The System: Where Psychological Influence Tactics Lurk In Judicial Writing, Anne E. Mullins

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mistreating A Symptom: The Legitimizing Of Mandatory, Indefinite Commitment Of Insanity Acquittees - Jones V. United States, Paul S. Avilla

Pepperdine Law Review

At the end of the 1982 term, in Jones v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld a District of Columbia statute requiring the automatic and indefinite commitment of persons acquitted by reason of insanity. While under the D.C. statute the acquittee is periodically given the opportunity to gain release, the practice of involuntarily confining someone who has been acquitted raises serious due process and equal protection issues. This note examines the Court's analysis of these issues, focusing on a comparison of the elements necessary for an insanity defense with the showing required by the due process clause for …

Our Founding Feelings: Emotion, Commitment, And Imagination In Constitutional Culture, Doni Gewirtzman

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disposition Of The Irresponsible: Protection Following Commitment, Travis H. Lewin

Michigan Law Review

Each year more of our fellow citizens are involuntarily committed to a mental institution of one sort or another than are incarcerated for the commission of a crime. To those committed, the walls and barred windows of the hospital, as well as the treatment and mode of living, are probably not significantly different from those of a prison. This is particularly the case with those confined for treatment by court order or by some special statutory procedure following acquittal of a crime on grounds of insanity. Yet these mentally ill, even after perpetrating what would otherwise have been a criminal …

Criminal Law - Insane Persons - Influence Of Mental Illness On The Parole Return Process, David G. Davies S.Ed., John H. Hess M.D.

Michigan Law Review

Defendants in the criminal process are divided into rigidly exclusive categories of mental health. The competent to stand trial are first separated from the incompetent. Then the competent are divided on the basis of their mental state at the time of their acts between the "sane" and the "insane." As long as these rigid categories are administered in an adversary trial system, some misdirection of victims of serious mental illness into the penal system is almost inevitable. Even where mental illness might otherwise prevent conviction, those accused of non-capital felonies are not likely to raise the question, and few courts …

Civil Liberties And The Mentally Ill, Thomas S. Szasz

Cleveland State Law Review

Here are two basic ways in which a person may assume the social role of "mental patient." First, it may be assumed voluntarily, meaning that the role is self-defined. Second, it may be foisted upon a person against his will. This means that a person may be defined as "mentally ill" by someone other than himself. This definition, then, if properly implemented, may become generally accepted or socially verified. I shall limit myself here to calling attention to certain ethical and legal aspects of the psychiatrist's involvement with the second class of "mentally ill" patients.

Civil Rights And Mental Hospital Administration, Ewing H. Crawfis

Cleveland State Law Review

Let us start our discussion by indicating a frame of reference for the comments we wish to give about civil rights. Our discussion will relate primarily to patients, who have been hospitalized for the observation and treatment of mental illness. It is also based on the statutes in Ohio and on the practice in the courts and more especially in the receiving hospitals and state hospitals in Ohio. The receiving hospitals admit a high percentage of voluntary patients, whereas the state hospitals admit patients who have been committed.

California's Program For The Sexual Psychopath, Reginald S. Rood

Cleveland State Law Review

The basis for California's sexual psychopath program is the legal provision which establishes a state hospital as an alternative to prison for certain nonpsychotic, convicted offenders, legally defined as sexual psychopaths. The designated institution is the Atascadero State Hospital, a new facility opened in June, 1954. Its 1250 all male patient population is about sixty percent sexual psychopaths and forty percent criminal insane. This preponderance of non-psychotic patients is unique for a state hospital for the mentally ill, where, as a rule, about ninety percent of the patients are psychotic. My purpose is to discuss our program and procedures for …

Mental Competency And Mental Hospitals, Ewing H. Crawfis

Cleveland State Law Review

Psychiatrists generally are aware that there is not necessarily any relation between competency and hospitalization for mental illness. The consensus seems to be that these two things should be considered entirely separately. Many patients may need mental hospital care, without having suffered any impairment of their competency. My personal estimate is that 75% of all patients admitted to the average mental hospital could be considered to be competent. Also, it is well to keep in mind that an individual may require a guardian because of incompetency due to a mental disorder, but not require hospitalization in a mental hospital. Unfortunately, …

Constitutional Law - Criminal Law - Power Of Federal Government To Commit Mentally Incompetent Persons Charged With Federal Crimes, William C. Becker S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was indicted for robbery from a United States Post Office. After a series of hearings and examinations, the district court found petitioner so mentally incompetent that he could not stand trial, and that, if released, he would probably endanger the safety of the officers, property, or other interests of the United States. The district court ordered petitioner committed to the custody of the Attorney General for confinement in a mental institution. This order was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, one judge dissenting. On certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States, held, …

Hospitalization Of The Voluntary Mental Patient, Hugh A. Ross

Michigan Law Review

In 1949, the last year for which accurate statistics are available, 390,567 persons were admitted to mental hospitals in the United States. Total annual cost of mental illness, including loss of earnings, has been estimated to be over a billion dollars a year. Although the problems involved in admission of the mentally ill patient to a hospital are usually thought of in terms of formal involuntary commitment proceedings, there is an increasing awareness of the desirability of provision for voluntary procedures which would encourage prompt and effective medical care. Voluntary admission is not a form of commitment, although it may …

Indiana Sexual Psychopath Statute

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.