The authors present clinical material to illustrate the special
treatment and management problems posed by different types of mentally ill
offenders; they suggest that court-mandated hospital treatment is often
destructive and unrelated to the needs of the patient, the community, and
the mental institution. The failure to create new kinds of institutions,
combining modalities derived from the hospital and correctional systems, is
traced to poor communication among the disciplines involved. The "mentally
ill offender" is caught in the interplay of these systems and is
consequently both their victim and victimizer.
Abstract Teaser