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A comment on What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity?. Parent comment

Re:What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by rea... by kelnos on Wednesday September 27, 2017 @05:52PM (#15352673)
The thing that I worry about in these cases is the lack of "enforceability" of treatment. If keeping the person in control of themselves (such that they don't become violent again) means they need to be on medication for the rest of their lives, how do we ensure (post-release) that they'll always be on their meds?

I know of people on various medications for psychiatric reasons that have (against their doctor's recommendation) gone off their meds because they didn't like the side-effects. That might be fine (if unfortunate/difficult) for a mental illness that doesn't drive the sufferer to violence, but in the case where it does, how can you responsibly release someone if you don't have a mechanism to ensure they stay on their medication?

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Re:What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by rea... by lazyasciiart on Wednesday September 27, 2017 @06:27PM (#15352910)
Mechanisms to enforce medication usage in the community do exist, usually by in-person visits to supervise taking medication. One such program is the "Assertive Community Treatment" model that exists in a couple different places in the US, here's a report from the King County (WA) group: http://www.kingcounty.gov/~/media/health/mentalHealth/Docume...

I think the actual 'enforcement' in the way you are thinking would be backed up with some kind of court ruling that they were required to take the medication, I'm not so sure how that angle would work.

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Re:What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by rea... by DanBC on Thursday September 28, 2017 @04:09AM (#15355575)
In England you have a "community treatment order". These are meant to reduce the numbers of hospitalisations of people with severe and enduring mental illness, by ensuring medication is taken.

They don't seem to work in that sense. There doesn't seem to have been a reduction in hospital use in that group.

English MH treatment is very different to the US though.

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Re:What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by rea... by dsego on Thursday September 28, 2017 @01:20AM (#15354837)
Monthly injections, and if you don't show up, they call the cops. Also, once somebody has a history, it's easy to send them back to the institution.
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Re:What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by rea... by nerfhammer on Wednesday September 27, 2017 @06:03PM (#15352749)
Would their doctor or pharmacist have to also take up the role of sort of parole officers?
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