NCJ Number
11348
Date Published
1973
Length
327 pages
Annotation
TREATMENT OF THE MENTALLY DISTURBED CRIMINAL OFFENDER IN PRISONS AND HOSPITALS.
Abstract
MOST OF THIS VOLUME CONSISTS OF A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKING OF PART 5 OF THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT, 1959 IN THE SIXTIES. THE BOOK BEGINS BY GOING BACK TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIFFICULTIES OF THE PRISONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. THE PROVISION OF A SPECIAL WING FOR CRIMINAL LUNATICS IN BETHLEM EVENTUALLY DEVELOPED INTO THE SPECIAL HOSPITALS AS WE KNOW THEM TODAY. CHAPTER 2 IS CONCERNED WITH THE TRANSFER OF PRISONERS TO THESE AND OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS, BEGINNING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND ENDING WITH A SURVEY OF THOSE TRANSFERRED IN 1966-7. AT NO TIME, HOWEVER, HAS THIS SYSTEM OF TRANSFERS RELIEVED THE JAILS OF ALL DISORDERED INMATES, AND CHAPTER 3 IS THEREFORE CONCERNED WITH THE PRISON SERVICE'S EFFORTS TO COPE WITH CERTAIN RESIDUAL PROBLEMS. THE PRISONS' EFFORTS TO RID THEMSELVES OF SOME OF THEIR PROBLEMS LED TO LEGISLATION WHICH - BY A SERIES OF RATHER MUDDLED DEVELOPMENTS - CULMINATED IN THE 1959 ACT. CHAPTER 5 DESCRIBES THE WAY IN WHICH THE CRIMINAL COURTS HAVE APPLIED THE ACT. THIS IS FOLLOWED BY A CHAPTER WHICH DESCRIBES A ONE-YEAR COHORT OF HOSPITAL ORDER CASES, COLLECTED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEEN-SIXTIES. THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS, 7 AND 8, FOLLOW THIS COHORT INTO HOSPITAL AND IN MANY CASES OUT OF IT AND BACK AGAIN TO HOSPITAL OR PRISON AS THE CASE MAY BE. FINALLY, THERE ARE TWO CHAPTERS - ONE OF THEM HISTORICAL - DEALING WITH THAT SPECIAL SUB-GROUP OF OFFENDER-PATIENTS WHICH THE COLLUSION OF PSYCHIATRISTS AND LAWYERS HAS ENDOWED WITH A PSEUDO-DIAGNOSTIC LABEL, 'PSYCHOPATHIC DISORDER'. THE APPENDICES INCLUDE THE PROCEDURES USED FOR THE CASE STUDY. FOR VOLUME ONE OF THIS WORK, SEE NCJ-11347. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED)