Dual Commitments to Forensic Hospitals and Prisons: Rational Disposition or Political Compromise?

Abstract

Society continues to struggle with what to do with persons who are both “mad” and “bad” (i.e., mentally disordered persons who commit criminal acts). The first attempt to differentiate between them occurred in the 19th century with the simultaneous establishment of the prison and state mental hospital systems and the formalization of the insanity defense. In the past two decades, the trend has been to return to imprisonment mentally disordered persons who commit crimes, but with provision of psychiatric treatment in the prison system. This article addresses a rarely discussed consequence of this trend: the simultaneous commitment of such persons to the prison and hospital systems.