Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:1074-1077
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Miranda comes to the hospital: the right to remain silent in civil commitment
RD Miller, GJ Maier and M Kaye
One procedural protection that has not generally made the transition from
the criminal justice system to involuntary civil commitment is the Fifth
Amendment protection against self-incrimination. The authors present the
results of a study of the implementation of the right to remain silent,
which demonstrate that warning patients that anything they say may be used
against them in the commitment hearing has little impact on their
willingness to talk to staff or to cooperate with treatment. The authors
discuss the possible reasons for their findings.
