Administrative Discharge Procedures for Involuntary Civily Committed Mental Patients: An Alternative
Historically, state practices governing institutionalization of mental patients have escaped serious challenge. Sparked, however, by a rising societal concern for individual rights' and an increasing recognition of the pervasiveness of mental illness, litigators and commentators are no demanding a more critical examination of the treatment of mental patients. In accord with these realizations, this note will focus on involuntary, civilly-committed patients in state mental hospitals and will examine both highly protective systems recently enacted by some states as well as failures of discharge procedures in others. An alternative system, providing a second level of administrative review, with some improvements on judicial review, will be recommended for those states which currently maintain inadequate procedures and which realistically cannot or will not bear the cost of more protective systems.
IMPORTANCE OF ADEQUATE DISCHARGE PROCEDURES
Most litigation involving the rights of involuntary civil patients focuses on the lack of due process in commitment procedures and on deprivations and abuses occurring within institutions.' Discharge procedures are largely ignored becaus...e