...According to the State Bar of Texas, involuntary commitment is “…the use of legal means to commit a person to a mental hospital or psychiatric ward against their will or over their protests” (“Committed to Healing: Involuntary Commitment Procedures”). Involuntary commitment blatantly disregards the principles of bodily integrity and basic civil liberties upon which the United States was founded. Additionally, the medication typically forced upon involuntarily committed patients seldom successfully improves their mental state. The U.S. Supreme Court should declare involuntary commitment of the mentally ill unconstitutional because it violates the civil rights of mentally ill persons and coercive medication rarely succeeds in effectively treating...
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...Cambridge Jail took a turn for Dorothea’s life. During her time teaching there, she realized that the handling of prisoners were horrifying, especially the handling of prisoners who were mentally ill. In result Dorothea Dix spent most of her life devoting to the welfare of the mentally ill. She began traveling around the country to investigate the environment and conditions of prisons and documented all the conditions. One case that was documented was about an old man she had visited. The old man became mentally ill after the death of his only son. Jail was the only place this man could go to be cared for. The old man was found lying on a small bed in a dark basement room deprived of necessary comfort. All documentation of the prison’s environment, such as the case of the old man was presented to the Massachusetts legislature. Not only did Dorothea investigate and document the conditions of prisons around the...
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...Mental health reform has been constantly changing to best fit the patient as well as society. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, involuntary civil commitment laws were in place in most states in the United States to provide care for mentally ill individuals that needed it, but could not realize their need for it (La Fond, 1994). During the 1950’s and 1960’s; however, there was fight against involuntary commitment (La Fond, 1994). The most prominent argument was centered on hospitalized patients’ ability to function outside in the social world, as most people thought “confinement in institutions created a dependency on their structured environment, diminishing patients’ ability to function in the outside world” (La Fond,...
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...2. Compare & contrast the various forms of admission to mental health facilities: b. Voluntary i. Patients who access treatment voluntarily by consenting to be admitted and treated. c. involuntary/emergency ii. When the effects of the patient’s mental illness result in an immediate risk of self-harm or harm to others, or the effect of the mental illness is such that the patient is unable to provide food, clothing, or shelter for him/herself, and emergency commitment is appropriate. 1. Short period and more restrictive criteria for admission. 2. State requires that a mental health official see the individual. 3. A 2nd mental health professional makes and examination once the individual is brought to the inpatient unit. 4. Probable cause hearing must take place to continue the hospitalization. d. civil/judicial iii. Longer amount of time than emergency...
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...end) “America’s prisons have become warehouses for the severely mentally ill”- Dahlia Lithwick The institutionalization of mental health care programs has resulted in a high number of mentally ill people ending up incarcerated without receiving the treatment they require due to the fewer funds provided by the government for the proper facilities needed. Dorathea Dix fought for the establishment of psychiatric hospitals. Due to budget cuts and changes in administration, the funds for psychiatric hospitals have decrease, limiting the amount of people that receive treatment and increasing the amount of people in prisons. Some critics claim that its the miscommunication between the public health departments and the criminal...
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...HIS 132-51 E. Jackson April 23, 2013 Dorothea Lynde Dix: A Woman With A Voice, Vision, and Victory For the Mentally Insane Deep in the dark dungeons of the jail or the “crazy cellar,” lived the neglected and often beaten, mentally insane. Naked, filthy, and foul-smelling, they often lived among other hardened criminals and “lunatics” of the day. There was no heat in the winter, or coolness in the summer, for it was thought they could not feel the heat or the cold, and they most certainly did not deserve any better. Chains bound them together, but one woman made it her life’s ambition to break those chains of confinement and of inhumane, barbaric treatment that the mentally ill endured in the early 1800’s. This woman was Dorothea Lynde Dix. As a social reformer, teacher, writer, nurse and humanitarian, Dorothea Dix devoted her life to the welfare of the mentally ill and handicapped. Her methods of research, lobbying, and advocacy were both innovative and effective in changing the world’s perceptions of the mentally ill. The overall purpose of this paper is to trace her life from her early to later years, with an emphasis on her antebellum and Civil War career, and then take a final look at a hospital here in North Carolina she helped to establish. By doing so, one may learn how and why she was inspired to make it her life-long career to advocate for the mentally ill in the ingenious ways she did. Dorothea Dix was defined by her earliest beginnings. Born in Hampden, Maine on...
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...strategy for dealing with the challenges of working with mentally ill individuals. The paper also discusses the historical and legal underpinnings of Mental Health Courts (MHCs), their growth, and the defining elements and operations of the earliest MHCs, which are best, viewed as evolving models of practice. Finally, the paper reviews studies of MHC operations and effectiveness and suggests future directions for MHCs. Rehabilitating the Court System In 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported there were an estimated 283,000 prison and jail inmates who suffered from mental health problems. That number is now estimated to be 1.25 million. The rate of reported mental health disorders in the state prison population is five times greater (56.2 percent) than in the general adult population (11 percent). MHCs were developed in an attempt to solve the problem of criminalizing the mentally ill; this phenomenon occurs when the mentally ill are arrested and prosecuted for minor offenses rather than being treated by the mental health system. A greater focus on this may foresee a decrease in the rate of reported mental health disorders within the prison system. The basis for the above approach was founded on the concept of Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ), the notion that the law can play a role as a potential means of therapeutic influence and this could be achieved by making court proceedings more therapeutic to mentally ill prosecutors through involvement in treatment, MHCs...
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...Patients at the OSH are placed at the facility due to being found guilty except for insanity, inability to aid and assist in their own defense or civil commitment due to being at risk for harming themselves or others. I guide students in working with patients with a variety of mental illness and legal status. Mentally ill in prison and jails (State of Oregon legislative committee services, 2012) “Approximately 50 percent of the prison population needs mental health treatment…of the total men and women incarcerated, 14.6 percent of the men and 44.2 percent of the women were diagnosed with severe mental illnesses” (p.2). Individuals with Mental illness are often stigmatized and in some cases criminalized. Freire’s theory (2014) supports the assisting the patients to defend themselves. The staff at OSH work to give the patients the tools to function outside the hospital setting. I work to teach the students this process and to see the mentally ill patients as people worthy of respect and understanding. Frier (2014) education is a way to change the oppression...
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...has come to influence the modern American legal system in several ways. Meyer & Chapman point out some of the most common ways psychological evaluation has shaped the modern legal landscape: “evaluating criminal responsibility, competency to stand trial, or competency to handle one’s affairs; gauging potential dangerousness and its relationship to involuntary civil commitment; and the appraisal of honesty or truth telling by participants in the criminal justice system” (2009). Defendant Issues Many psychological issues with respect to criminal defendants have been acknowledged by the courts as legitimate considerations. Chief among such considerations is the court’s ability to assign criminal responsibility. Courts consider a defendant’s competency in several areas to determine his ability to stand trial, his ability to comprehend the charges levied against him, and the extent to which he is able to testify and assist in his own defense (Meyer & Chapman, 2009). A defendant must make several important decisions in his criminal proceedings, and the court will evaluate the extent to which he is mentally apt to make such decisions. The courts have ruled that a person accused of a crime must be shown to be competent to make certain decisions: the defendant must be competent to consent to a psychological evaluation, stand trial, plead guilty, waive counsel, and knowingly waive his Miranda rights (remaining silent and having an attorney present when he is questioned...
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...of liberty . . . . The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.1 INTRODUCTION On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho went on a murderous rampage at Virginia Tech University, slaughtering 32 people before turning his gun on himself.2 Cho had previously been diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder and declared mentally ill in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County.3 At the time of the shooting, Virginia law prohibited the “purchase, possession, or transportation of any firearm by any person adjudicated ‘legally incompetent,’ ‘mentally incapacitated,’ or ‘incapacitated,’ whose competency or capacity [had] not been * Third-year law student at Southern Illinois University. Address correspondence to Mr. Sterzer at Southern Illinois University School of Law, Law Journal Office, Lesar Law Building, Carbondale, IL 62901, or via e-mail at jasons@siu.edu. 1 ST. GEORGE TUCKER, BLACKSTONE’S COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND (1803), available at http:// www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/2amteach/ sources.htm#TOC7. 2 VIRGINIA TECH REVIEW...
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...An Argument Toward the Reformation of Civil Commitment Alexander S. Earp SECTION I – Introduction The following paper contains an argument toward the reformation of the civil commitment system in the United States. In this context, civil commitment is in reference to those who are legally committed to inpatient care by a third party, it does not necessarily need to be against the will of the patient. Civil commitment, commonly referred to as involuntary commitment, has a stigmatic and controversial history, and is in need of refinement for the modern world. To support this thesis, this paper will be divided into several sections. Section II will discuss the history and development of the civil commitment system. Section III will discuss...
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...THE PUBLIC'S PERCEPTION OF MENTALLY ILL OFFENDERS Name Institution Subject Date Attestation I appreciate the nature of plagiarism, and I am mindful of the University’s course of action on this. I, therefore, attest that this dissertation reports unique work by me throughout my University project. Signature (you must delete this, then sign and date this page) Date Acknowledgements I would like to pass my sincerest gratitude to my parents who shaped me to the person I am today. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor and other academic staff that provided unconditional guidance and support. I would, furthermore, like to recognize my fellow students and colleagues who helped me in the facilitation of this project in various ways. In addition, I would also like to acknowledge the general public for allowing me to conduct my interviews. Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge my friends for providing their time, cooperation and tolerance before and after the study. Abstract The mentally ill offenders have arguably been viewed on an exclusionary spectrum continuum. The public has adopted punitive attitudes that have significantly hampered with restorative measures. The aim of this study is to examine the perception of the public regarding the mentally ill offenders. The sample investigated comprised of 3 most dominant ethnic groups. Out of 200 respondents there was an average of 30 participants for...
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...The Future of Juvenile Justice Clinton Hardy, Dominique Whitlock CJA /374 March 18, 2012 Bruce Clingan The Future of Juvenile Justice The state of juvenile justice system in American is at a crossroad. It is important that the states take more of an imitative at the local level to ensure the important components of the juvenile justice system are being met. This is a proposal for the juvenile justice system to adopt some of the aspects of the adult system by building a state of the art facility that houses probation, home confinement, work release, and community service all in one place. The necessity for these services is crucial to the commitment to rehabilitation of youthful offenders. This project is a joint venture with the Department of Corrections, the city government, and the Department of Juvenile Justice. There are three areas that this proposal will address as far as social need and the explanation for these services. The three areas of deficiency that have to be addressed in relation to delinquency are family life and financial need, diagnosis of mental disabilities, and the likelihood of offending based on ethnic background. The purpose of this new facility is not to punish, but to get to the root of the reason for offending. Mental Health of Juvenile Offenders The most effective way to diagnose the problems associated with juveniles who offend or continue to offend is to make sure that all offenders, at one point or another, have had a mental health...
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...Social Welfare Past & Present robert white HN300: Human Services and Social Policy Social Welfare Past & Present robert white HN300: Human Services and Social Policy 2014 2014 Social welfare began in England with the English Poor Laws. Poor Laws were a body of laws that provided relief for the poor, developed in 16th-century and maintained, with various changes, until after World War II. The Elizabethan Poor Laws, were administered through parish overseers, who provided relief for the aged, sick, and infant poor, as well as work for the able-bodied in workhouses. However, the modern welfare state was started by Otto von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, created the modern welfare state by building on a tradition of welfare programs in Prussia and Saxony that began as early as in the 1840s. Bismarck introduced old age pensions, accident insurance and medical care that formed the basis of the modern European welfare state. The United Kingdom, as a modern welfare state, started to emerge with the Liberal welfare reforms of 1906–1914 under Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. The passing of the Old-Age Pensions Act in 1908, the introduction of free school meals in 1909, the 1909 Labour Exchanges Act, the Development Act 1909, which heralded greater Government intervention in economic development, and the enacting of the National Insurance Act 1911 setting up a national insurance contribution for unemployment and health benefits from work. The...
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...from the very nature of police work. Others, like racial profiling and exposure to civil liability, have arisen due to common practices, characteristic police values, public expectations, legislative action, and ongoing societal change. Certainly, one of the most significant challenges facing American law enforcement today is policing a multicultural society. In the past few years and recent year one big issue police officers face is the excessive use of force. It has been reported many cases of excessive use of force, resulting in a death of the individual. “Sheriff's officials revisit the use-of-force policy after lawsuit ruling” (4/15/2014). The daughter of Shane Hayes, a mentally ill man who was shot and killed in his home by San Diego County sheriff's deputies after brandishing a knife, filed a wrongful death suit against the department. She argued that the deputies provoked the confrontation that led to the shooting. It’s one of many other cases happening in recent years. Police have been in the in controversial events that it has been going across the world because of the news. Another issue with the struggle for the economy a lot of the agencies are shorthanded. Many officers got layoff; budgets have been cut, making it impossible at purchasing new gear. ("Law Enforcement Partnerships", February 26, 2015). Homeland security begins with hometown security. As part of its commitment to hometown security, DHS has worked to get tools, information, and resources out of...
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