Journal commentary argues jail-based restoration and forced medication are poor substitutes for timely hospital care
Alan Felthous and Joseph Bloom argue in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law that moving severely ill jail detainees to a hospital has long been a core treatment route but is now often out of reach. Two practices have grown up to fill the gap and, in their view, have been used to excuse it: restoring competency inside jail programs, and medicating pretrial detainees in jail over objection.
The authors examine each practice and conclude that neither adequately answers the state's failure to hospitalize these detainees promptly. They say they are not calling for a return to long-term custodial state hospitals, and they place their argument within the changed roles of civil commitment and competency statutes as routes from jail to hospital.
The piece is a commentary rather than a data study.
Source: Jail-Based Competency Restoration — Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, by Alan R. Felthous and Joseph D. Bloom
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