Abstract
Typically, persons acquitted of crime by reason of insanity are treated in secure mental institutions until they are no longer dangerous. For these patients, conditional release programs provide a transitional step between institutional confinement and community freedom. Conditional release programs impose constraints on patients, closely monitor their activities, and seek revocation of outpatient status when community treatment is unsuccessful. This Article reports on a study of all insanity acquittee patients processed through one conditional release program over a nine-year period. The study examines recommendations of the program's mental health professionals on questions of patient status: should the patient's conditional release be revoked; should the patient be retained in the program for an additional year; should the patient be restored to sanity. The Article concludes with recommendations to assure that conditional release programs achieve the legitimate objective of enhanced community security without inflicting impermissible punishment on the patients they treat.
How to Cite
39 Ariz. L. Rev. 1061 (1997)
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