Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:450-456
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Court-mandated community outpatient treatment for persons found not guilty by reason of insanity: a five-year follow-up
HR Lamb, LE Weinberger and BH Gross
Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles 90033.
The authors conducted a 5-year follow-up study of 79 persons found not
guilty by reason of insanity who were referred to and accepted for
court-mandated community outpatient treatment. This was a severely mentally
ill and violent group with extensive experience in both the criminal
justice and mental health systems. This program was not without risks
despite a readiness to revoke the patients' conditional release status when
indicated; during the 5-year follow-up period, 25 (32%) were rearrested (18
[72%] for crimes of violence), 37 (47%) were hospitalized, and 38 (48%) had
their conditional releases revoked. The authors believe that members of
this population need social controls and long-term treatment when they are
in the community.
