9.5 Summary
- Several forms of commitment, or court-ordered involuntary mental health treatment, exist to serve various purposes as part of or adjacent to the criminal justice system.
- Civil commitment provides a non-criminal process for a court to order a person to receive treatment for a mental illness, including possible confinement to a treatment facility.
- Civil commitment requires a complex set of processes with multiple layers of review to ensure that a person’s rights are not violated. A person cannot be committed simply because they experience mental illness; rather there must be clear and convincing evidence that they must pose a danger due to mental illness.
- There are several forms of commitment that relate more directly to criminal proceedings. One is a commitment for competency restoration; this is where a person has been determined by the court to be mentally unfit to resolve their criminal case, or unable to “aid and assist” their attorney. A person in this situation may be committed to the hospital to receive treatment to become competent, or be restored.
- Another criminal-system commitment, specific to Oregon, is the Extremely Dangerous and Resistant to Treatment commitment for people who, usually, have been found “never able” to aid and assist in their own defense. In order to be committed under this law, a person must be extremely dangerous (defined to include commision of a very serious and violent offense) and resistant to treatment – that is significantly unresponsive to psychiatric treatments for their mental disorder.
- A person will also be committed to the hospital or another facility for treatment if they successfully assert the insanity defense in their criminal case, and are found not to be criminally responsible. They will be ordered into treatment and supervision, rather than punished, based on the excuse of insanity.
- Some states, including Washington, have provisions in law that allow for the post-conviction commitment of certain convicted criminal offenders who remain dangerous to the community even after serving a sentence on the underlying offense. This type of commitment generally applies to sex offenders. Commitment is not additional criminal punishment, but it does allow for restriction of the person’s freedom where it is deemed necessary.
9.5.1 Key Terms
- Aid and assist
- Beyond a reasonable doubt
- Burden of proof
- Civil commitment
- Clear and convincing evidence
- Commitment hearing
- Competency restoration
- Conditional release
- Criminal commitment
- Emergency hold (hospital hold)
- Imminent danger
- Notice of Mental Illness (NMI)
- Pre-commitment investigation
- Preponderance of the evidence
- Psychiatric Security Review Board
- Public petition for civil commitment
- Section 1983