9.1 Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
Learning Objectives
The following learning objectives tell you what is most important in this chapter. Use these statements as a guide to make sure you get the most out of this chapter.
- Explain why and how civil commitment is used to manage people with mental disorders outside of the criminal justice system.
- Describe the basic steps involved in accomplishing a civil commitment, with attention to how this process may connect or relate to the criminal justice system.
- Discuss potential benefits and harms of civil commitment.
- Compare different types of commitments that are used to manage justice-involved people with mental disorders.
Key Terms
Look for these important terms in the text in bold. Understanding these terms will help you meet the learning objectives of this chapter. You can find definitions for these terms at the end of the chapter.
- Beyond a reasonable doubt
- Burden of proof
- Civil commitment
- Clear and convincing evidence
- Commitment hearing
- Conditional release
- Criminal commitment
- Emergency hold (hospital hold or hold)
- Grave disability
- Imminent danger
- Notice of Mental Illness (NMI)
- Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB)
- Pre-commitment investigation
- Preponderance of the evidence
- Section 1983
Chapter Overview
Imagine a person who has a serious mental illness. This person lives with family in the community, where they receive treatment and support. The person decides to stop taking their prescribed medications, and their symptoms escalate. Perhaps they begin hearing voices, and the voices direct them to start fires; they have thus far resisted the commands, but they find them compelling. Or maybe the person has severe depression, and their current presentation is similar to that which preceded an earlier suicide attempt, causing grave concern for their safety. The person refuses treatment, but their condition is deteriorating. In these circumstances, or many other scenarios we might imagine, the question is the same: How do we keep this person and those around them safe while respecting the person’s rights to freedom and autonomy?
This text is largely focused on people with mental disorders as they enter and proceed through the criminal justice system. In this chapter, we consider a specific legal tool used to manage people with mental disorders outside of or adjacent to the criminal justice system: involuntary treatment, also known as commitment.
If you are familiar with the idea of civil commitment, you may know it as a process that allows a court to order care and treatment for a person with a mental disorder, and even confine them to a hospital to receive that care, if necessary. Because civil commitment is a restriction on freedom, it is used only in specific and limited circumstances.
There are also commitments that are closely connected to the criminal justice system. These are sometimes referred to as “criminal commitments” because they are used to manage people who are already engaged in the criminal justice system. However, it is important to understand that these “criminal” commitments are not convictions, nor are they punishments.
In this chapter you will learn about different varieties of commitment: what they are, how and when they are used, the process for obtaining them, and the issues that surround them.
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Learning Objectives and Overview
“Chapter Overview” by Anne Nichol is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
