Vladimiro Zagrebelsky
# Malati psichiatrici dietro le sbarre, l'ultima vergogna del sistema carcerario
La Stampa, 6 dicembre 2021

Le Rems sono appena 32 e nemmeno distribuite su tutto il territorio. In attesa che si liberi un posto continua la detenzione negli istituti di pena. La Corte europea ha posto la questione della natura sistemica delle violazioni della Convenzione europea dei diritti umani da parte dell'Italia nei confronti di coloro che continuano ad essere  detenuti, non ostante l'ordine del giudice di ricovero. Occorrono concreti provvedimenti urgenti, poiché è prevedibile che la attuale situazione sia "condannata" sia dalla Corte costituzionale che dalla Corte europea,  come illegale, pericolosa e produttiva di trattamenti inumani.

Società della Ragione
# Appello al governo italiano perché in sede di Consiglio d’Europa si pronunci contro il Protocollo Aggiuntivo alla Convenzione di Oviedo circa il trattamento e l’internamento coatti delle persone con disabilità mentali

www.societadellaragione.it/ 26 ottobre 2021

Pietro Pellegrini

# Dopo l'Opg e oltre le Rems: un sistema giudiziario e di cura di comunità
www.sossanita.org/ 21 ottobre 2021

Il sistema delle REMS deve restare sanitario ed è del tutto fuori luogo ogni tentativo di riportarlo nell’ottica giudiziaria, di comandarlo e disporne facendolo gestire ad una sanità sottomessa. Una deriva di questo tipo aprirebbe, almeno per me, un’obiezione etica e tecnica perché, una REMS staccata dal territorio e magari forzata nel numero chiuso, diventerebbe con buona pace delle migliori intenzioni, inevitabilmente un nuovo pericoloso miniOPG.

David C. Yamada

# Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Foundations, Expansion, and Assessment

Uiniversity of Miami Law Review, 2021

# Camera dei Deputati, N. 2939, Proposta di legge d'iniziativa del deputato Magi: "Modifiche al codice penale, al codice di procedura penale e alla legge 26 luglio 1975, n. 354, in materia di imputabilità e di misure alternative alla detenzione per le persone con disabilità psicosociale", Presentata l’11 marzo 2021

Madeline Petrillo
# ‘We’ve all got a big story’: Experiences of a Trauma-Informed Intervention in Prison
The Howard Journal, 2021
Victimisation and trauma are prevalent among women in the justice system but are not perceived to be amenable to criminal justice intervention, and there are compelling arguments that correctional environments are inappropriate settings for trauma-informed programmes. This article analyses focus group discussions with women who completed Healing Trauma to examine the legitimacy of developing trauma-informed practice in prisons. The women’s testimonies indicate that Healing Trauma offers a mean ingful opportunity to begin to explore past victimisation that has contributed to their crim inalisation.

Storm Ervin, Jahnavi Jagannath, Janine Zweig, Janeen Buck Willison, Kierra B. Jones, Katy Maskolunas, Benjamin McCarty, Chafica Agha

# Addressing Trauma and Victimization in Women’s Prisons. Trauma-Informed Victim Services and Programs for Incarcerated Women

Urban Institute. October 2020

Many women bring past trauma into prison settings, where they often experience similar violence, abuse, and trauma as they experienced on the outside. As the population of women incarcerated in the US grows, so does the dire need for services that address trauma and victimization. Given that incarceration can be inherently retraumatizing and many justice-involved women have experienced trauma, correctional facilities are uniquely positioned to serve as de facto victim service providers.

Many facilities rely on peer support programs and peer mentors. These may also be called survival coaches or peer navigators. Such programs allow incarcerated women to assist other women.

Stefano Cecconi
# Covid e salute mentale. Mai più manicomi
https://ilmanifesto.it/ 15 luglio 2020

F. Starace, F. Baccari (eds)
# La Salute Mentale nelle Regioni. Disuguaglianze di Sistema
SIEP - Quaderni di Epidemiologia Psichiatrica, n. 7/2020
Nel presente volume viene riportata l’analisi che SIEP ha condotto sui dati forniti dal Sistema Informativo per la Salute Mentale (SISM), pubblicati annualmente dal Ministero della Salute. L’analisi, estesa al quadriennio 2015- 2018, offre un quadro della situazione attuale e dell’andamento dei principali indicatori di struttura e attività del sistema di cura per la salute mentale nelle diverse Regioni italiane. Ciò consente di apprezzare andamenti temporali che in molti casi appaiono preoccupanti, specie quando si consideri che le situazioni descritte non hanno ricevuto – a nostra conoscenza – adeguata attenzione. 

Pietro Pellegrini
# Il superamento degli OPG le REMS. Oltre le buone intenzioni.
http://www.osservatoriostopopg.it/ 7 giugno 2020
Occorre ricordare come si sia realizzata una riforma incompleta che non ha modificato il codice penale in tema di imputabilità, pericolosità sociale e misure di sicurezza. Persiste un “doppio binario” mentre sarebbe auspicabile un sistema unitario che riconosca a tutti il diritto al processo, vedendo poi in fase di esecuzione della pena, previa valutazione e gestione dei rischi, quali siano gli aspetti retributivi, trattamentali e terapeutici più appropriati per la singola persona. Il doppio binario e la doppia organizzazione rischiano di creare percorsi alternativi, spesso frammentari e poco efficienti, in relazione a letture che spesso sono parziali. Solo mediante una visione d’insieme biopsicosociale e culturale si potrà rispondere alle diverse determinanti delle condotte  violative e antisociali.

Marco Patarnello
# Le Rems: uscire dall’inferno solo con le buone intenzioni
www.questionegiustizia.it/ 2 giugno 2020
# Questione legittimità costituzionale_REMS

Disciplina ideologica, assenza di risorse e indifferenza hanno abbandonato gli autori di reato psichiatrici e gravemente pericolosi in un groviglio normativo denso di ipocrisie, silenzi e trascuratezze. La Corte Costituzionale sembra l’unica strada

Jenna Bao
# Prisons: The New Asylums
https://harvardpolitics.com/ Mar 9, 2020

Marco Bastianello
# La salute mentale in carcere: profili di criticità della riforma dell’ordinamento penitenziario in ambito psichiatrico.
www.giurisprudenzapenale.com/ Marzo 2020
1. Introduzione. – 2. Modifica dell’art. 11 ord. penit.: parità sanitaria tra liberi e detenuti, e profili psichiatrici. – 3. Supporto psichiatrico nelle carceri, differenze tra normativa e fattualità. – 4. La sentenza della Corte Costituzionale n. 99 del 19 aprile 2019.

Kristen M. Zgoba, Rusty Reeves, Anthony Tamburello, Lisa Debilio
# Criminal Recidivism in Inmates with Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, v. 48, n. 2, 2020
The relative contributions of mental illness and substance use disorders to criminal recidivism have important clinical and policy implications. This study reviewed 36 months of postrelease data for nearly 10,000 New Jersey state inmates released in 2013 to ascertain the rearrest rate of those diagnosed with mental illness, substance use disorders, both, or neither. We also examined whether certain characteristics suggestive of higher risk of psychiatric decompensation were associated with higher rates of rearrest...

Marta Bertolino
# L'imputabilità secondo il Codice Penale. Dal Codice Rocco alla legge delega del 2017: paradigmi, giurisprudenza, Commissioni a confronto
https://sistemapenale.it/ 25 febbraio 2020
1. L’infermità degli artt. 88 e 89: le scelte originarie. – 2. (segue) la dottrina penalistica moderna. – 3. Paradigmi di infermità mentale nella giurisprudenza e l’infermità mentale nel canone delle Sezioni unite della cassazione. – 4. Dai Progetti di nuovo codice penale alla legge delega del 2017 e alle relative proposte della Commissione a proposito degli artt. 88 e 89. – 5. Le sfide delle neuroscienze. – 5.1. Le nuove frontiere dell’infermità mentale: dalla ludopatia alle dipendenze da sostanze

Mario Iannucci, Gemma Brandi
# Carcere, psichiatria, REMS, servizi
Diritto Penale e Uomo, 25 febbraio 2020

Franco Corleone (a cura di)
# Il muro dell'imputabilità. Dopo la chiusura dell'Opg, una scelta radicale
Fondazione Michelucci Press, Dicembre 2019
L’abolizione della nozione di non imputabilità è stata sostenuta da molti degli psichiatri del gruppo triestino e di psichiatria democratica, proprio come forma di riconoscimento di soggettività al malato di mente, in questo caso autore di reato. Il riconoscimento della responsabilità è anche ritenuto essere un atto che può avere una valenza terapeutica. Ancora dal punto di vista teorico, nella sfumatura delle riflessioni dogmatiche, potrebbe essere evidenziata, in senso critico, la netta discontinuità tra una misura di sicurezza con finalità terapeutiche e la pena con la sua funzione retributiva.

Franco Corleone (a cura di)
# Mai più Manicomi. Una ricerca sulla Rems di Volterra. La nuova vita dell’Ambrogiana

Fondazione Michelucci Press, 2018

Nel 1988, dieci anni dopo l’approvazione della riforma, tanti manicomi “civili”, così erano chiamati per distinguerli da quelli criminali o giudiziari, erano ancora funzionanti per gestire quello che con un termine brutalmente liquidatorio era definito il residuo manicomiale. Il “residuo” era costituito da migliaia di donne e di uomini spesso ab-bandonate a se stesse e ridotte in condizioni bestiali, indegne rispetto a uno standard minimo di umanità.

Mario Iannucci, Gemma Brandi
# Gli omicidi dei poliziotti a Trieste, #IAmNotDangerous e la Negazione
quotidianosanità.it/ 9 ottobre 2019
# Lancet #IAmNotDangerous and the politics of stigma

Moltissimi dei gravi episodi aggressivi degli ultimi tempi (non importa che si tratti di mass shootings, ma specie si tratta di mass shootings) vengono compiuti da persone con gravissime turbe psichiche. Turbe psichiche talora non adeguatamente riconosciute dai servizi di salute mentale, ovvero non adeguatamente curate. Oppure si tratta di folli completamente “abbondanati per strada”, perché i servizi non possono o non vogliono prendersene cura. Come nel caso degli stranieri affetti da grave malattie mentali.

Fabrizio Starace e Flavia Baccari, # Salute Mentale: dai dati alle informazioni, siep.it/ 8 Luglio 2019

Le Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté
# La nuit dans les lieux de privation de liberté
https://www.cglpl.fr/ 3 juillet 2019
# Dossier de presse

Le CGLPL constate régulièrement que la notion de « nuit » renvoie, au sein des lieux d’enfermement, à des organisations et des durées très hétérogènes. La nuit représente un enfermement dans l’enfermement : enfermement dans les cellules et chambres de lieux eux-mêmes clos. La nuit, qui peut débuter à 18h30, est le moment où les portes se referment, où les équipes se réduisent. Les activités cessent, l’ennui s’installe, les difficultés à dormir aussi quand l’intimité et le respect de la dignité sont mis à mal. La conscience que les portes ne se rouvriront peut-être pas assez vite en cas d’urgence est parfois source de peur et d’angoisse. Arriver dans un lieu de privation de liberté ou le quitter une fois la nuit tombée est souvent synonyme d’un accueil tronqué, d’une sortie improvisée.

# Corte Costituzionale, sentenza 99 del 2019

Valentina Stella # I detenuti con gravi patologie mentali si possono curare fuori dal carcere, Left, 20 aprile 2019

Andrea Pugiotto  # La follia fuori dal carcere, la sentenza della Consulta, Il Manifesto, 24 aprile 2019

Antonella Calcaterra # Salute mentale e detenzione: un passo avanti. È possibile la cura fuori dal carcere https://dirittopenaleuomo.org/ 02.05.2019

Aamna Mohdin, Pamela Duncan
# Mentally ill prisoners face months-long waits for hospital transfer
www.theguardian.com/ Sun 21 Apr 2019
Government guidelines in England and Wales stipulate that prisoners who are acutely mentally ill should be transferred to a hospital within 14 days of the first medical recommendation. But according to an analysis of Ministry of Justice data, hundreds of prisoners a year are being left awaiting adequate treatment. The data shows that in some cases prisoners with mental health problems wait for six months from officials receiving an application for transfer of a prisoner to the prisoner’s eventual admission to hospital.

Heather Stringer
# Improving mental health for inmates
www.apa.org/ March 2019, Vol 50, No. 3
The unfortunate truth is that despite improvements over the past 30 years, the correctional system continues to struggle to meet the vast needs of the increasing number of inmates with mental health conditions... About 37 percent of people in prison have a history of mental health problems, according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Justice. More than 24 percent have been previously diagnosed with major depressive order, 17 percent with bipolar disorder, 13 percent with a personality disorder and 12 percent with post-traumatic stress disorder. The numbers are even higher for people in jail, where one-third have been previously diagnosed with major depressive disorder and almost onequarter with bipolar disorder.

Comitato Nazionale per la Bioetica
# Salute mentale e assistenza psichiatrica in carcere
http://bioetica.governo.it/ 22 marzo 2019
Il livello deteriorato di salute mentale dei detenuti dà luogo a difficoltà di interpretazione, influenzato da due possibili variabili interagenti: il ruolo patogeno del carcere da un lato, lo scarso livello di salute mentale (e di salute più in generale) prima dell’ingresso in carcere, dall’altro. La mole di studi circa la relazione fra il cosiddetto “gradiente sociale” e le disuguaglianze nella salute suggerirebbe di appuntare l’attenzione sul rapporto fra il deterioramento della salute e il disagio sociale da cui proviene gran parte della popolazione detenuta. Ciò può sollevare numerosi problemi in ambito criminologico...

Pietro Pellegrini
# Salute Mentale. L’eclissi di una riforma?
http://www.sossanita.org/ 6 febbraio 2019
Occorre rilanciare l’azione riformatrice dei codici penale e di procedura penale rendendoli finalmente coerenti con la legge 180/1978 e non con la 36/1904. Bisognerebbe trovare il coraggio di affrontare imputabilità, doppio binario, pericolosità sociale, misure di sicurezza e con molto realismo affrontare il tema del funzionamento del sistema senza OPG. Una specifica Consensus conference potrebbe coinvolgere i diversi soggetti competenti, affrontare le contraddizioni, definire e valorizzare le buone pratiche come auspicato anche dal Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura...

Francesco Maisto
# Rems, criminale è la nostalgia del manicomio
Il Manifesto, 30 gennaio 2019
Le prassi del Dap non sono cambiate rispetto a quelle praticate con la vecchia normativa. Non è stata attivata la Conferenza nazionale sulla salute mentale e l'Accordo Stato-Regioni del 26 febbraio 2015 non è stato ancora rivisto. Non stupisce, dunque, se, in un clima politico "repressivo" e regressivo, riprenda vigore l'ipotesi di soluzioni istituzionalizzanti piuttosto che la scelta di un sistema incentrato sulla comunità.

European Court of Human Rights
# Detention and mental health
www.echr.coe.int/ January 2019

Shelby Hayne
# An Analysis and Critique of Mental Health Treatment in American State Prisons and Proposal for Improved Care
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1256, December 14 2018
The large-scale housing of prisoners is extremely expensive, with the average cost of each inmate in state prisons measured at $33,274 per year in the year 2015. A study that surveyed 45 states found total prison spending to amount to over $42 billion per year (Vera Institute, 2018). Furthermore, prisons havereported costs of housing inmates with mental illness to be tens of thousands of dollars more than the costs of housing those without

Shivpriya Sridhar, Robert Cornish, Seena Fazel
# The Costs of Healthcare in Prison and Custody: Systematic Review of Current Estimates and Proposed Guidelines for Future Reporting
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 20 december 2018
Prison healthcare expenditure data was identified for 10 countries, and overall operating costs were reported for 12 countries. The most commonly reported healthcare cost was for primary medical care. Healthcare costs reporting varied widely, and few countries were comparable. We developed a set of guidelines for consistent and transparent reporting of healthcare costs... Few countries report the costs of healthcare services in prison. When reported, there is a lack of clarity and consistency as to what is included. Using the proposed reporting guidelines would enable national trends and international  comparisons to be investigated, and any recommended benchmarks to be monitored.

Francesco Ungaretti
# Il bisogno di un luogo per la cura anche per i detenuti condannati o imputati affetti da patologie mentali.
Giurisprudenza Penale Web, 12, 2018
1. La modifica normativa e la luce verso una disciplina omogenea. - 2. Excursus giurisprudenziale degli orientamenti più recenti, che hanno messo in evidenzia le ombre della normativa. - 3. Conclusioni e riflessioni sulla cura dei condannati malati psichiatrici.

Sebastian Schildbach, Carola Schildbach
# Criminalization Through Transinstitutionalization: A Critical Review of the Penrose Hypothesis in the Context of Compensation Imprisonment
www.frontiersin.org/ October 2018
In 1939, the English scientist Lionel Penrose found an inverse correlation between the size of psychiatric inpatient clinics and the number of detainees based on cross-sectional data from diverse European countries. His assumption that the number of psychiatric hospital beds was inversely related to the size of prison populations was later termed the “Penrose hypothesis.” A common expression summarizing Penrose's findings is “transinstitutionalization,” which refers to a process where mentally ill individuals, who are discharged from, or no longer admitted to, mental hospitals, are frequently found in prisons. Even 80 years after its formulation, the Penrose hypothesis has neither been rejected nor confirmed. Despite repeated observations of transinstitutionalization, and an increase of the numbers of imprisoners, it is still unclear whether there is an association between capacities in psychiatric clinics and prison sizes.

Lucilla Amerio
# Differimento pena per infermità psichica: il Tribunale di Messina percorre la via “immediata” dell’analogia in bonam partem
Giurisprudenza Penale Web, 2 giugno 2018
Si è posto, dunque, il “problema per l’interprete, di trovare uno strumento nel sistema che consenta di apprestare adeguata tutela nei confronti di soggetti affetti da infermità psichica sopravvenuta nel corso dell’esecuzione della penale, onde evitare che gli stessi, in assenza di rimedio espressamente previsto, siano costretti a rimanere in carcere con un conseguente indubbio pregiudizio per la loro salute”; problematica, quest’ultima di chiara rilevanza, specie in considerazione della tutela costituzionalmente garantita al diritto alla salute, e, più in generale, al bene vita...

# Tribunale di Sorveglianza di Messina, ordinanza, 22 febbraio 2018

Laure Anelli
# Malades psychiques en prison: une folie
https://oip.org/ Observatoire International des Prisons, 18 mai 2018
Si l’on sur-pénalise les personnes souffrant de troubles, c’est, au fond, que la maladie psychique fait peur. Dans l’imaginaire collectif, les figures du criminel et du malade mental se confondent, pour n’en former plus qu’une : celle du fou dangereux. Pourtant, « entre 2 % et 5 % des auteurs d’homicide et entre 1 % et 4 % des auteurs d’actes de violence sexuelle seulement [sont] atteints de troubles mentaux ». Quoiqu’il en soit, dans une société obnubilée par le risque – fut-il infime, la question de leur dangerosité fantasmée obsède. Redoutant, en cas de récidive, de voir leur responsabilité engagée sur la place médiatique, les juges préfèrent la prison à l’hôpital. Il faut dire que l’évolution récente des moyens de la psychiatrie donne aux magistrats des raisons de douter de la capacité de prise en charge du secteur.

Thomas Fovet, Laurent Plancke, Pierre Thomas
# Dossier soins psychiatriques aux personnes détenues. Prévalence des troubles
Santé Mentale, Avril 2018
Les études soulignent la prévalence importante de tous les troubles psychiatriques en prison, avec une surreprésentation des dépressions, des troubles psychotiques et des comorbidités addictives... la prévalence des troubles psychiatriques est largement supérieure à celle retrouvée en population générale. Tous les troubles sont représentés : schizophrénie, troubles de l’humeur – notamment le trouble bipolaire et l’épisode dépressif caractérisé – trouble stress post-traumatique, troubles anxieux, troubles de la personnalitéet également déficience intellectuelle...

Mathieu Nacher, Gulen Ayhan, Romain Arnal, Célia Basurko, Florence Huber, Agathe Pastre, Louis Jehel, Bruno Falissard, Vincent About
# High prevalence rates for multiple psychiatric conditions among inmates at French Guiana’s correctional facility: diagnostic and demographic factors associated with violent offending and previous incarceration
MC Psychiatry (2018) 18:159
Mentally ill detainees should benefit from effective screening, case identification and psychiatric care on arrival, ongoing care during the period of incarceration and pre-release arrangements for ongoing care in the community following release from custody. The goals of the correctional facilities and the psychiatric system are different but they may not always be antagonistic. Improved recognition and care of persons with mental illness in prison settings may improve outcomes for affected individuals and for public security.

Jesse T Young, Ed Heffernan, Rohan Borschmann, James R P Ogloff, Matthew J Spittal, Fiona G Kouyoumdjian, David B Preen, Amanda Butler, Lisa Brophy, Julia Crilly, Stuart A Kinner
# Dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance use disorder and injury in adults recently released from prison: a prospective cohort study

www.thelancet.com/ April 18, 2018
People with mental illness and substance use disorder are over-represented in prisons. Injury-related mortality is elevated in people released from prison, and both mental illness and substance use disorder are risk factors for injury. Effective care coordination during the transition between criminal justice and community service providers improves health outcomes for people released from prison. However, the health outcomes and support needs of people with dual diagnosis (co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder) released from prison are poorly understood. Here we aim to examine the association between dual diagnosis and non-fatal injury in adults released from prison.

G. B. I. Polichetti
# Il problema dell'imputabilità nei disturbi di personalità
Psicologia & Giustizia, Anno XIX, numero 1, Gennaio-Giugno 2018
Nessun disturbo di personalità, a prescindere dal tipo e dalla gravità, può configurare di per sé stesso una causa idonea a pregiudicare significativamente la capacità d’intendere e di volere, e quindi l’imputabilità: una personalità gravemente disturbata potrebbe, invece, consentire l’interazione con altro disturbo, ma soltanto la variazione personologica identificata e dimostrata all’origine del comportamento, e sostenuta dall’interazione discussa , potrebbe interessare sensibilmente l’imputabilità. Unicamente il grave disturbo di personalità del tipo borderline potrebbe risultare autonomamente idoneo a scemare grandemente la capacità d’intendere o di volere...

Olli Vaurio, Eila Repo Tiihonen, Hannu Kautiainen, Jari Tiihonen
# Psychopathy and Mortality
Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol, 63, Issue 2, March 2018

Samuele Ciambriello
# Salute mentale, oltre 40mila detenuti soffrono di un disagio psichico
La Repubblica, 5 gennaio 2018
L'importanza del tema salute mentale in carcere è di prima e immediata evidenza anche se ci si sofferma solo sui numeri. Secondo i dati della Società italiana di medicina e salute penitenziaria nel 2016 oltre 40mila detenuti soffrono di un disagio psichico. Un disagio che può assumere anche forme molto gravi (depressioni, psicosi, depressioni) e che può portare anche a gesti estremi o a comportamenti autolesionistici.

House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
# Mental health in prisons. Eighth Report of Session 2017–19
https://publications.parliament.uk/ 13 December 2017
People in prison are more likely to suffer from mental health problems than those in the community. NHS England estimates that 37% of its spend on adult healthcare in prisons is on mental health and substance abuse, which it told us is more than twice the proportion that is being spent within the NHS budget as a whole...

Mary O'Hara
# Locked up, locked out – inadequate stats on mental health are failing prisoners. The last reliable data on prevalence of offender mental health problems is from 1998, when the prison population was about half what it is today
www.theguardian.com/ Wednesday 11 October 2017
Despite evidence of a high prevalence of mental ill health in the prison population, not only does the government not know how many of England and Wales’ 85,000-plus inmates have a mental health condition, ministers are unable to pinpoint how much is being spent on mental healthcare... Extreme overcrowding, greater use of inmates being locked in cells for 23-hour periods and increased violence taking place against a backdrop of severe staff shortages and drastic budget cuts, is having a detrimental effect on the mental health of prisoners...

London Assembly Healt Committee
# Offender Mental Health
www.london.gov.uk/ September 2017
• Seven per cent of male prisoners have experienced a psychotic disorder within the previous year, a substantial increase over the prevalence within the general population (0.7 per cent). • 33 per cent of male and 51 per cent of female prisoners suffer from depression, while the prevalence in the general population is 9 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. • The proportionof male prisoners with a diagnosed personality disorder is 64 per cent... Prison environments in London are disastrous for mental health

Jane C. Daquin, Leah E. Daigle
# Mental disorder and victimisation in prison: Examining the role of mental health treatment
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, August 2017
There is evidence that people with mental disorders are at increased risk of victimisation in prison. It is unclear whether this risk of victimisation varies across types of disorders or symptoms and what role mental health treatment has on victimisation risk in this context. Aims: To examine the relationship between specific mental disorders, psychiatric symptoms, and victimisation in prison and the effect of treatment for the disorders on victimisation risk.

Laura Fierro
# La riforma del ricovero in un Ospedale Psichiatrico ai sensi del § 63 StGB
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 9/2017
1. Le misure di sicurezza e miglioramento nello StGB. – 2. I principi alla base delle misure di sicurezza e miglioramento. – 3. Il giudizio di pericolosità sociale. – 4. Il “caso Mollath. – 5. La riforma del § 63 StGB e del § 64 StGB e le ragioni economico-sociali. – 6. La riforma del § 63 StGB. – 7. La riforma del § 64 StGB. – 8. La modifica del § 67 StGB e la durata delle misure di sicurezza. – 9. La modifica del § 463 StPO e la nomina di ‘esperti’. – 10. Brevi considerazioni sulla riforma del ricovero in ospedale psichiatrico nello  StGB.

Pierpaolo Rivello
# La revisione del modello definitorio dell’infermità mentale prevista dalla riforma Orlando
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 22 settembre 2017
Il punto di partenza della riforma deve dunque essere rappresentato da quello che costituisce invece il punto d’arrivo dell’analisi a suo tempo condotta dalle Sezioni unite, con cui venne fatto riferimento a «una nozione più ampia di infermità rispetto a quella di malattia psichica», ed in base alla quale anche i disturbi della personalità appaiono idonei ad escludere o a scemare grandemente la capacità di intendere e di volere, in quanto detti disturbi, come in genere quelli da nevrosi e psicopatie, sebbene non riconducibili, dal punto di vista nosografico, entro il ristretto ambito delle “malattie” mentali, possono costituire delle “infermità”, magari transeunti, qualora determinino il risultato di pregiudicare, totalmente o grandemente, le capacità intellettive e volitive...

Antonella Massaro (ed)
# La tutela della salute nei luoghi di detenzione. Un'indagine di diritto penale intorno a carcere, REMS e CPR
RoamTre-Press, 2017

Stephen Allison, Tarun Bastiampillai, Doris A Fuller
# Should the Government change the Mental Health Act or fund more psychiatric beds?
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 4 August 2017
Successive UK governments have been responsible for the rapid decline in the number of available psychiatric beds, which according to the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) has decreased from 93 public hospital-based psychiatric beds per 100 000 population in 1998 to 46 beds per 100000 population in 2014... These problems are even more evident in the USA (22 beds per 100 000 population), where prisons have replaced standalone mental hospitals as the largest institutions that house people with severe mental illness.

European Court of Human Rights
# Detention and mental health   # Fr
www.echr.coe.int/ Press Unit July 2017
The [European] Court [of Human Rights] has held on many occasions that the detention of a person who is ill may raise issues under Article 3 of the [European] Convention [on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment] ... and that the lack of appropriate medical care may amount to treatment contrary to that provision .. . In particular, the assessment of whether the particular conditions of detention are incompatible with the standards of Article 3 has, in the case of mentally ill persons, to take into consideration their vulnerability and their inability , in some cases, to complain  coherently or at all about how they are being affected by any particular treatment ...

MOPAC Mayor of London
# Justice Matters: Mental Health and Vulnerabilities
www.london.gov.uk/ 21 July 2017
Individuals with mental health problems are heavily overrepresented as victims of: violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery... Within London young black males are over represented in admissions to psychiatric units... the number of those admitted of a black ethnicity is higher at 1.2 against the population demographic.

Isabel A. Yoon, Karen Slade, Seena Fazel
# Outcomes of Psychological Therapies for Prisoners With Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2017, Vol. 85, No. 8, 783–802
Prisoners worldwide have substantial mental health needs, but the efficacy of psychological therapy in prisons is unknown. We aimed to systematically review psychological therapies with mental health outcomes in prisoners and qualitatively summarize difficulties in conducting randomized clinical trials (RCTs).... Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT and mindfulness-based therapies are modestly effective in prisoners for depression and anxiety outcomes. In prisons with existing psychological therapies, more evidence is required before additional therapies can be recommended.

National Audit Office NAO
# Mental health in prisons
www.nao.org.uk/ 29 June 2017
Around one in four adults are diagnosed with a mental illness during their life and many more will experience changes in their mental well-being. Most research suggests that people in prison are more likely to suffer from mental health problems than people in the community... We estimate that the total spend on healthcare in adult prisons in England in 2016-17 was circa £400 million but this includes both mental and physical healthcare.

Brian McKenna, Jeremy Skipworth, Krishna Pillai
# Mental health care and treatment in prisons: a new paradigm to support best practice
World Psychiatry 16:1 - February 2017
Yet, what is lacking is a penal paradigm that articulates the integration of therapy and custody. If a punishment paradigm is allowed to prevail, more damage is inevitable – to individual prisoners, to their family and loved ones, and to the communities from which they have come and to which they return on release...

Asiri Cuyay Nathalie Niño, Diana Carolina Díaz M, Luisa Fernanda Ramírez
# Trastorno mental en el contexto carcelario y penitenciario
Carta Comunitaria. Vol. 25. Número 143. Abril – Junio de 2017
Dentro de los trastornos mentales de mayor incidencia, estudios españoles señalan que “el 25 % de la población de presos preventivos, presenta de cuatro o cinco trastornos psiquiátricos comórbidos”, identificando en grupos específicos de reclusos una alta prevalencia de trastornos de personalidad con abuso o dependencia de alcohol y drogas, asimismo, se encuentran altos niveles de depresión mayor, trastornos de ansiedad, episodios maniacos, esquizofrenia y, en establecimientos de reclusión de mujeres, se presenta una alta incidencia de estrés postraumático. Estos trastornos tienen influencia en diversas conductas de riesgo como actos impulsivos, comportamientos disruptivos y aumento de eventos violentos entre reclusos, situaciones que se presentan de manera frecuente en dichos establecimientos.

National Audit Office NAO - Comptroller and Auditor General
# Mental health in prisons
www.nao.org.uk/ 29 june 2017
In March 2017, NHS England’s performance monitoring data showed that 7,917 prisoners, or 10% of the adult prison population in England, were receiving treatment for mental health problems although there might be people receiving treatment who are not included in these data. The number of prisoners with mental health or well-being problems is likely to be higher, because some people may not be receiving treatment. During prison inspections conducted by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 37% of the prison population in England and Wales reported having emotional  well-being or mental health problems...

Jennifer Bronson, Marcus Berzofsky
# Indicators of Mental Health Problems Reported by Prisoners and Jail Inmates, 2011-12
Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2017
About 1 in 7 state and federal prisoners (14%) and 1 in 4 jail inmates (26%) reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD) in the 30 days prior to a survey that was conducted between February 2011 and May 2012. Similarly, 37% of prisoners and 44% of jail inmates had been told in the past by a mental health professional that they had a mental disorder. Half of prisoners (50%) and a third of jail inmates (36%) either did not meet the threshold for SPD or had not been told they had a mental health disorder.

Stanford Justice Advocacy Project
# The Prevalence And Severity Of Mental Illness Among California Prisoners On The Rise
https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/ May 2017
Over 30 percent of California prisoners currently receive treatment for a “serious mental disorder,” an increase of 150 percent since 2000. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) estimates that the population of prisoners with mental illness will continue to climb, increasing the need for additional psychiatric services in the years to come. Furthermore, there is evidence that CDCR’s projections underestimate the current number of prisoners with mental illness. In addition, the severity of psychiatric symptoms of state prisoners is on the rise.

Margaret Heslin, Lynne Callaghan, Barbara Barrett, Susan Lea, Susan Eick, John Morgan, Mark Bolt, Graham Thornicroft, Diana Rose, Andrew Healey, Anita Patel
# Costs of the police service and mental healthcare pathways experienced by individuals with enduring mental health needs
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/ The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2017, 210:157-164
In the UK, the importance of investment in the interface between National Health Service (NHS) mental health services and the criminal justice system has been highlighted, and research has identified substantial gaps between the sectors for individuals with enduring moderate to severe mental health needs. Mental health disorders are costly to society, with estimates of healthcare costs in England at around £22.5 billion per year,5 exclusive of indirect costs such as costs to the criminal justice system. In light of recommendations from key policy documents in recent years, this study aimed to map current care pathways between mental health services and the police, to estimate the costs to each sector and to explore, by decision modelling, the potential cost impacts of implementing enhanced care pathways based on key policy recommendations in recent years.

Fredrick E. Vars, Shelby B. Calambokidis
# From Hospitals to Prisons: A New Explanation
Cornell Law Review Online, vol 102:101, 2017

Prisons today are as atrocious for people with mental illness as mental hospitals used to be. And the remedies sought by plaintiffs in prison reform litigation could be quite expensive for the state. Alternative treatment in the community may finally be seen as the more attractive option. It will be too late for Jamie, but if our theory is correct and if prison litigation succeeds more broadly, we may incline toward a second deinstitutionalization — this time from prison rather  than mental hospitals.  

Francesco Schiaffo
# Psicopatologia della legislazione per il superamento degli OPG: un raccapricciante acting out cella c.d. "riforma Orlando"
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 21 giugno 2017
1. Giustizia penale e stato sociale: oltre le funzioni della pena. – 2. Le sanzioni penali tra funzioni manifeste e funzioni latenti. – 3. Il fondamento giuridico di una distorsione funzionale: la pericolosità sociale. – 4. I criteri normativi della pericolosità sociale tra teoria e prassi. – 5. I rilievi del Comitato Europeo per la Prevenzione della Tortura dopo la visita nell’OPG di Aversa (2008). – 6. La pericolosità sociale tra aspirazioni scientifiche e funzioni politiche. – 7. Una probatio diabolica nel terzo millennio: la “pericolosità latente”. – 8. Pericolosità sociale ed evoluzioni legislative, politiche e sociali. – 9. La via maestra: la sentenza della Corte costituzionale n.253/2003. – 10. L’emersione legislativa delle strategie per il superamento degli OPG: il d.P.C.M. del 2008. – 11. La legge n.9/2012: l’art.3-ter del d.l. n.211/2011. – 12. Il testo definitivo dell’art.3-ter dopo sei riforme in due anni. – 13. La legge n.81/2014: l’abrogazione tacita del fondamento giuridico della distorsione funzionale. – 14. Gli esiti della riforma 14 anni dopo la sentenza della Corte costituzionale n.253/2003. – 15. Il raccapricciante acting out di un legislatore schizofrenico: l’art.1 co.16 lett. d) della c.d. “riforma Orlando”.

Marie Barbier
# Marseille. Les malades mentaux hors des prisons
hwww.humanite.fr/ 9 Mai, 2017
L’association Médecins du monde a signé un protocole d’engagement avec cinq ministères pour « offrir une alternative à l’incarcération des personnes souffrant de troubles psychiatriques sévères par le logement et le suivi intensif ». Les chiffres, bien que très mal connus, sont sidérants : selon un rapport de 2014, entre 20 et 30 % des détenus souffrent de troubles psychologiques dans les prisons françaises (schizophrénie, maniaco-dépression, paranoïa, troubles bipolaires, etc.)...

Seena Fazel
# Response to “The Use of Meta-Analysis to Compare and Select Offender Risk Instruments”
Int J Forensic Ment Health. 2017 ; 16(1): 16–17
We found potential conflict of interests common in the risk assessment literature and little transparency in whether they were declared despite journal policies. In fact, none of the 25 studies where a tool designer or translator was one of the authors of a validity study disclosed a financial or non-financial conflict interest, despite many of the journals in which these studies appeared explicitly requesting such information. We note that the current piece states, “We have never advocated that assessors predict that an offender will or will not recidivate.”

K. M. Babchishin, M. C. Seto, A. Sariaslan, P. Lichtenstein, S. Fazel, N. Långström
# Parental and perinatal risk factors for sexual offending in men: a nationwide case-control study
Psychological Medicine (2017), 47, 305–315
Sexual offending is a serious societal and public health problem. Attempts at preventing sexual offending will be most effective when based on a robust aetiological understanding. Studies suggest that parental and perinatal factors are causally related with later criminal behaviour. For example, younger maternal age, lower maternal education, paternal age, greater number of siblings, and parental illness are associated with greater likelihood of offspring criminality 

Sean Kim, Gayoung Lee, Eric Kim, Hyejin Jung, Jongwha Chang
# Quetiapine Misuse and Abuse: Is it an Atypical Paradigm of Drug Seeking Behavior?
J Res Pharm Pract. 2017 Jan-Mar; 6(1): 12–15.
Numerous early reports and case studies focused on illicit use in incarcerated populations, which are at high risk of quetiapine MUA.[11,12,13] In most cases, MUA of AAs are shown to be associated with forensic settings such as incarceration, court-ordered hospitalization, or other oversight by the legal system. Numerous case reports and several systematic studies have shown that quetiapine MUA is not confined to penal populations; it also occurs in other settings such as psychiatric inpatients, outpatients, and patients attending drug treatment clinics... 

Ignazio Marino
# Matti da slegare
L'Espresso, 23 aprile 2017
Nelle nuove Rems non andranno solo coloro ai quali è stata accertata l'infermità mentale al momento del reato, ma anche tutti coloro per i quali l'infermità di mente sia sopravvenuta in carcere, e anche i detenuti per i quali occorra accertare le condizioni psichiche, qualora il carcere non sia idoneo a garantire i trattamenti terapeutico-riabilitativi. Esattamente ciò che si voleva evitare. Ma con questo decreto legge si ritorna di fatto alla vecchia logica in cui tutti i rei con problemi di disturbi mentali finiranno nelle Rems, che diventeranno rapidamente sovraffollate e ingestibili. Ovvero si ritornerà ai  vecchi Opg.

Cate Graziani, Liat Ben-Moshe, Haile Eshe Cole
# Beyond Alternatives to Incarceration and Confinement
https://grassrootsleadership.org/ April 2017
The deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities in recent decades can be  perceived as the most successful alternative to incarceration ever attempted in  the U.S. on a mass scale... This pervasive narrative of the backlash of deinstitutionalization reduces a much  more complex process and puts the blame on an easy target, deinstitutionalization,  and away from discussions of neoliberal policies that led simultaneously to the  growth of the prison system and to the lack of financial support for people with disabilities to live in the community...

Liat Ben-Moshe
# Why Prisons Are Not “The New Asylums”
Punishment and Society 19 (3) 2017
“The new asylums” thesis posits that 'deinstitutionalization → homelessness → imprisonment.' I hope this paper has demonstrated that people did not become homeless because of deinstitutionalization, or because they needed to be in institutions. People are unsheltered because of economic inequalities that left them unhoused, including the shrinkage of the safety net, cuts in public services, erosion in living wages and policies that made affordable and accessible housing out of reach, especially for those already marginalized. Blaming deinstitutionalization diverts attention from these structural violence. In addition it makes it appear as if hospitalization and institutionalization were a panacea but disability based institutions and psychiatric hospitals should not be residential placements or alternatives to housing.

# Mark Townsend, Denis Campbell, Prison psychiatrists warn care is ‘at breaking point’. Shortage of officers means basic mental health provision is under threat -- www.theguardian.com/ Saturday 11 March 2017
# Denis Campbell, Prisoners with serious mental health problems face urgent treatment delays. Almost three-quarters of prisoners in England faced delays being transferred to a mental health unit, according to official Department of Health figures -- www.theguardian.com/ Wednesday 1 March 2017

Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura
# Disposizioni urgenti in materia di superamento degli Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari (OPG) e di istituzione delle Residenze per l'esecuzione delle misure di sicurezza (Rems) - Seduta del 19 aprile 2017

#  Pietro Pellegrini : commento (22 aprile 2017)

Gloria Bertotti
# Riflessioni e analisi in tema di tutela della salute mentale in carcere: la sentenza Murray c. Olanda
Giurisprudenza Penale Web, 2017, 3
1. Premessa. – 2. Il caso Murray c. Olanda. – 3. I fatti. – 4. La decisione della Gran Camera. – 5. Riflessioni sulla tutela e sulle condizioni di salute mentale in carcere. – 5.1. Fonti normative in merito al diritto alla salute. – 5.2. La salute mentale nelle carceri italiane – 6. Conclusioni.

# ECHR, Case of Murray v. Netherlands, Strasbourg, 26 April 2016

Franco Corleone
# Seconda Relazione Semestrale sulle attività svolte dal Commissario unico per il superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari
19 agosto 2016 – 19 febbraio 2017

# Gemma Brandi, Pubblica smentita a proposito di chiusura degli Opg e dintorni, Eistretti Orizzonti, 26 febbraio 2017

# Mario Iannucci, Uomini e carceri, OPG e REMS, Ristretti Orizzonti 24 febbraio 2017
# Gianfranco Rivellini, Rems. Il diritto alla cura non può sottostare ai tempi e all’esito del processo penale, Quotidianosanità.it, 17 febbraio 2017

# Superamento Opg. De Biasi: “Le Rems siano vere strutture di riabilitazione e non di contenzione”, Quotidianosanità.it, 16 febbraio 2017

# Pieritalo Pompili, Giuseppe Nicolò, Stefano Ferracuti, Dagli Opg alle Rems. Ma i medici non possono fare i poliziotti, Quotidianosanità.it, 2 novembre 2016

Michele Passione
# La chiusura degli Opg è costituzionale
il Manifesto, 8 febbraio 2017
# Corte Costituzionale, sentenza n. 22/2017

La norma impugnata è diretta a evitare i cosiddetti ergastoli bianchi, cui può dar luogo la permanenza a tempo indeterminato in strutture detentive per l’esecuzione delle misure di sicurezza, e pone così fine a situazioni in cui per  l’infermità mentale, anche nel caso di commissione di reati di modesta gravità, persone senza supporti familiari o sociali rimanevano perennemente private della loro libertà in un contesto di natura penale...

Giulio Magliano
# La “ludopatia” può, a determinate condizioni, integrare l’ipotesi del vizio di mente: una breve analisi alla luce di una recente sentenza
www.giurisprudenzapenale.com/ n. 1, 2017

1. Premessa; 2. In principio era l’infirmitas, il dibattito sul vizio di mente; 3. La soluzione delle Sezioni Unite “Raso”; 4. La “ludopatia”: qualificazione tecnica e giurisprudenziale; 5. La pronuncia del 13 ottobre e la causalità negata.

Sergio Mauceri (a cura di) | A buon diritto
# “Contenere” la contenzione meccanica in Italia Primo rapporto sui diritti negati dalla pratica di legare coercitivamente i pazienti psichiatrici nei SPDC  # integrale...
A Buon Diritto, Associazione per le libertà, Gennaio 2017
La presente indagine si concentra specificatamente sugli usi della contenzione meccanica nei Spdc, per quanto sia da precisare che i Spdc non sono gli unici luoghi nei quali si lega: i servizi di neuropsichiatria infantile, le residenze sanitarie assistenziali (Rsa), i reparti di medicina e quelli geriatrici, i pronto soccorso, le Rems, le case di cura private e le comunità terapeutiche, sono tutte strutture all’interno delle quali talvolta (più o meno frequentemente, a seconda della cultura e delle pratiche degli operatori) i pazienti vengono contenuti con vari mezzi...

# Legge Basaglia. Dopo 40 anni un report per "contenere" la contenzione, 180gradi.org, 13 aprile 2017

Alejandro Calvo Schwarzwälder
# Mental Disorder and Crime
https://crimeandlawblog.com/ 18-19 enero, 2017
Prison inmates have high rates of mental disorders compared with the general population. While this may imply a causal relationship between mental disorder and crime, disparate research results do not allow for such a conclusion to be drawn. However, mental disorders are intertwined with several risk factors for criminal activity, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of social support and substance abuse... Treatment alone cannot be expected to reduce recidivism and criminality. The most effective rehabilitative programmes in terms of improving criminal justice outcomes are those which address the whole social context of the offenders as well as their clinical symptoms.

Camille Lancelevée
# Incarcérer pour soigner : quand la prison devient hospitalière
www.cairn.info/ Regards 2017/1 (N° 51), p. 245-255
La question de la prise en charge des infracteurs présentant des troubles mentaux a suscité d’incessants débats depuis la création de la prison et de l’hôpital modernes. Ces débats tiennent à la difficulté de distinguer de manière claire et définitive ce qui relève de la pathologie mentale de ce qui relève de la déviance sociale. L’augmentation du nombre de personnes présentant des troubles mentaux et la mise en place de services psychiatriques en prison témoignent du déplacement du centre de gravité de la prise en charge de ce public à la croisée du soin et de la folie vers la prison. Ce rééquilibrage institutionnel soulève, en milieu carcéral, des enjeux cruciaux pour les professionnels de santé mais également pour les professionnels pénitentiaires.

# Camille Lancelevee, Quand la prison prend soin : Enquete sur les pratiques professionnelles de santé mentale en milieu carcéral en France et en Allemagne Thèse pour l’obtention du grade de Docteure de l’EHESS présentée et soutenue publiquement le 25 octobre 2016 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales 

Pietro Pellegrini
# Sull’imminente chiusura degli O.P.G. e sull’istituzione delle R.E.M.S. Una lettera al Direttore
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 16 gennaio 2017
L'OPG è sostituito non dalle REMS ma dall'insieme dei servizi sociali e sanitari del territorio dei quali è parte il dipartimento di salute mentale (DSM) e al suo interno la REMS. Se questo non diviene lo scenario di riferimento vi è il rischio di vedere le REMS modo riduttivo e distorto, e il tentativo di applicare ad esse le stesse norme dell'OPG finirà per trasformarle in "miniOPG" annullando il senso profondo della riforma che invece richiede un nuovo approccio e ruoli diversi a tutti i soggetti. In questo percorso concetti quali cura, sicurezza, libertà, responsabilità ecc. vanno rivisiti in modo articolato e innovativo secondo il modello psichiatrico (che è organizzato con una molteplicità di strutture a  diverso livello di protezione e intensità di cura, assai poco noto agli operatori del diritto) e non secondo il superato modello custodiale-carcerario.

Ministero della Salute | Miriam Di Cesare, Teresa Di Fiandra, Lidia Di Minco, Liliana La Sala, Natalia Magliocchetti, Giulia Masiero, Davide Orlandi, Morgan Romanelli, Elisabetta Santori
# Rapporto salute mentale. Analisi dei dati del Sistema Informativo per la Salute Mentale (SISM) - Anno 2015
www.salute.gov.it/ Dicembre 2016

Gli utenti psichiatrici assistiti dai servizi specialistici nel corso del 2015 ammontano a 777.035 unità (mancano i dati della Valle d‟Aosta, della P.A. di Bolzano e della Sardegna), con tassi standardizzati che vanno dal 107,73 per 10.000 abitanti adulti in Basilicata fino a 205,82 nella regione Emilia Romagna. Nel 2015 i pazienti che sono entrati in contatto per la prima volta durante l‟anno con i Dipartimenti di Salute Mentale ammontano a 369.569 unità di cui il 90,3% ha avuto un contatto con i servizi per la prima volta nella vita (first ever pari a 333.554 unità)... la più alta concentrazione si ha nelle classi 35-44 anni e 45-54 anni... # Sintesi

Gianluigi Gatta
# O.P.G. e R.E.M.S.: a che punto siamo? Le relazioni del Commissario unico per il superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari, Franco Corleone | Corleone 1 -- Corleone 2
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 27 dicembre 2016

Il dato più allarmante, segnalato dal Commissario unico, è quello relativo all’incidenza delle misure di sicurezza provvisorie sul numero complessivo dei pazienti assegnati alle R.E.M.S., pari al 40%. La relazione trimestrale segnala in particolare come a fine ottobre 2016 risultavano in attesa di essere eseguite 241 misure di sicurezza, gran parte delle quali (176) provvisorie: misure queste non eseguibili per mancanza di posti disponibili, con incidenza del fenomeno riferibile in particolare ad alcune regioni (ad es., la Sicilia). Proprio il ricorso all’applicazione provvisoria delle misure di sicurezza del ricovero in O.P.G. e in C.C.C. rappresenterebbe, secondo il Commissario Corleone, un fattore capace, numeri alla mano, di portare al collasso il neo istituito sistema delle R.E.M.S...

Cristiano Cupelli
# Dagli OPG alle REMS: un ritorno alla medicina custodiale?
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 23 dicembre 2016
Il superamento degli ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari e il passaggio alle nuove strutture regionali per l’esecuzione delle misure di sicurezza detentive (le c.d. REMS), pur segnando un significativo passo in avanti nel faticoso processo di abbandono dell’intollerabile logica manicomiale, hanno evidenziato alcuni profili di criticità. Tra i più rilevanti si segnalano quelli riguardanti il peculiare ruolo attribuito, all’interno delle nuove strutture, agli operatori psichiatrici, chiamati principalmente a compiti di organizzazione e gestione della sicurezza interna, anziché di cura e protezione dei pazienti internati. Ciò, inevitabilmente, si ripercuote sui prioritari compiti terapeutici della classe medica e amplia il perimetro applicativo della responsabilità penale dello psichiatra.

Luciano Vella
# Tra infermità mentale e pericolosità sociale: tecniche di controllo penale
Università degli Studi di Pisa, 2016

Ministero della Salute | a cura di Miriam Di Cesare, Teresa Di Fiandra, Lidia Di Minco, Liliana La Sala, Natalia Magliocchetti, Giulia Masiero, Davide Orlandi, Morgan Romanelli, Elisabetta Santori
# Rapporto salute mentale. Analisi dei dati del Sistema Informativo per la Salute Mentale (SISM) - Anno 2015
www.salute.gov.it/ Dicembre 2016

Gli utenti psichiatrici in cura presso strutture residenziali, nell'anno di osservazione 2015 sono pari a 29.733 unità, con tassi che vanno da 0,4 per 10.000 abitanti nella regione Calabria a 14,3 della regione Emilia Romagna. I pazienti con  diagnosi di schizofrenia e altre psicosi funzionali (14.836 unità) rappresentano la metà dell‟utenza delle strutture residenziali (49,9%); con riferimento all‟età si tratta di utenti appartenenti soprattutto alle fasce di età 45-64 anni. Il tasso relativo a tale diagnosi è pari a 2,9 per 10.000 abitanti (3,9 per 10.000 abitanti nei maschi, 2,1 per 10.000 abitanti nelle femmine)...

State of Washington Office of Financial Management
# Jail Diversion for People with Mental Illness in Washington State
www.ofm.wa.gov/ November 21, 2016
Recent Washington study showed that, among people entering jail who were enrolled in Medicaid or recently had been, 55 percent had a psychotic disorder a nd/or a mental health diagnosis such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder; this compares to just 34 percent of the general adult Medicaid population... Clearly, diverting more of these individuals from jail to community-based mental health treatment could aid them in living in the community, rather than returning repeatedly to jail. Diversion has the potential to cut crimina l justice system costs, reduce recidivism, and provide more effective mental health treatment for offenders. It also would represent a more humane response to individuals in jail who have a mental health disorder...

Doris A. Fuller, Elizabeth Sinclair, John Snook
# Released, Relapsed, Rehospitalized
www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/ November 2016
Rehospitalization is viewed clinically as a “poor outcome.” Psychiatric patients who are rehospitalized experience reduced continuity of care and quality of life compared with those who are not. Their caretakers are often demoralized. Rehospitalization is also costly, and rehospitalization for serious mental illness is especially costly. Schizophrenia and mood disorders, including bipolar, account for more readmissions of Medicaid patients than any other medical conditions. Schizophrenia hospitalization alone cost $11.5 billion in 2013, of which $646 million resulted from readmission within 30 days of discharge.

Michele Passione
# Rems, misure di sicurezza e libertà
Rubrica di Fuoriluogo su il Manifesto del 9 novembre 2016

Formalmente, sono passati 19 mesi dalla prevista chiusura degli Opg, ma tanti problemi restano ancora sul tavolo. Dopo l’entrata in vigore di una Legge di assoluta civiltà giuridica, che ha già superato con successo un ricorso davanti alla Corte Costituzionale, continua incessante la limitazione della libertà personale di autori di reato (anche per fatti bagatellari) affetti da disturbi psichici, malgrado la legge 81 del 2014 preveda la presa in carico territoriale quale risposta primaria, ed il ricorso alle misure di sicurezza in REMS quale extrema ratio.

Pietro Pellegrini
# La chiusura degli OPG è vicina, quella delle REMS?
www.stopOPG.it/ 3 novembre 2016

Va assolutamente evitato che le REMS diventino sede di “scarico” delle povertà, dei migranti e senza fissa dimora ma anche una soluzione per i casi psichiatrici difficili da trattare (pazienti con disturbi resistenti, disturbi antisociali) nei servizi territoriali.

Zheng Chang, Paul Lichtenstein, Niklas Långström, Henrik Larsson, Seena Fazel
# Association Between Prescription of Major Psychotropic Medications and Violent Reoffending After Prison Release
JAMA November 1, 2016 Volume 316, Number 17
Among released prisoners in Sweden, rates of violent reoffending were lower during periods when individiduals were dispensed antipsychotics, psychostimulants, and drugs for addictive disorders, compared with periods in which they were not dispensed these medications. Further research is needed to understand the causal nature of this association.

Caroline Guibet Lafaye, Camille Lancelevée, Caroline Protais
# L’irresponsabilité pénale au prisme des représentations sociales de la folie et de la responsabilité des personnes souffrant de troubles mentaux
www.gip-recherche-justice.fr/ Mission de recherche Droit et Justice – Octobre 2016

La présente recherche met en évidence une ligne de fracture récurrente entre, d’une part, ceux qui voudraient revenir à une interprétation maximaliste du principe d’irresponsabilité, c’est-à-dire un élargissement de son champ d’application, et d’autre part, ceux qui promeuvent au contraire une interprétation limitative voire la suppression de ce principe. La seconde option semble s’affirmer avec force, dans une logique de défense sociale, c’est-à-dire avec l’ambition de mieux protéger la société tout en proposant un accompagnement ajusté aux personnes vues comme « dangereuses »...

AdnKronos
# 3 detenuti su 4 con disturbi mentali, al via progetto ad hoc. Per un nuovo Percorso diagnostico terapeutico assistenziale (Pdta)
www.adnKronos.it/ 5 ottobre 2016
Un amplificatore dei disturbi mentali. Il carcere può alimentare una sorta di circolo vizioso della sofferenza psichica: l'isolamento e la mancanza di contatto con l’esterno, insieme allo shock della detenzione, possono facilitare la comparsa o l’aggravarsi di un disagio psichico che può essere già diagnosticato o ancora latente. I numeri sono allarmanti: più di 42 mila detenuti italiani - il 77% degli oltre 54 mila totali - convivono con un disturbo mentale: dai disturbi della personalità alla depressione, fino alla psicosi.

Rachel Edworthy, Stephanie Sampson, Birgit Völlm
# Inpatient forensic-psychiatric care: Legal frameworks and service provision in three European countries
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 47, 2016
Laws governing the detention and treatment of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) vary widely across Europe, yet little information is available about the features of these laws and their comparative advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this article is to compare the legal framework governing detention in forensic psychiatric care in three European countries with long-established services for MDOs, England, Germany and the Netherlands...

Arthur Robinson Williams
# Opportunities in Reform: Bioethics and Mental Health Ethics
Bioethics, 2016 May, 30(4): 221–226
The burden of mental illness is even greater at the margins of society. The US Department of Justice estimates that over half of prisoners have a serious mental illness and researchers find that the great majority of the chronically homeless have untreated mental illness including substance dependence. Yet we are witnessing the widespread closure of mental health clinics, psychiatric wards, and state hospital beds at academic centers and their affiliate institutions nationwide following decades of shrinking budget allocations for mental health. In response, Bioethics has largely been silent...

Patricia Constantino, Simone Gonçalves de Assis, Liana Wernersbach Pinto
# The impact of prisons on the mental health of prisoners in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
www.scielo.br/ Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 21(7):2089-2099, 2016
Brazil has the second highest prison population in in the Americas after the United States. According to the Superintendency of Human Resources of the Department of Prison Administration of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the state’s prison population was 38,762 inmates (95.4% male) in September 2014. Estimates of prevalence of severe mental illness among prisoners range between 10 and 15%, compared to 2% in the general population. Over half of inmates in the United States have mental health problems: 56% of state prisoners, 45% of federal prisoners, and 64% of inmates in local jails

Franco Vatrini
# Opg e "nuove" Rems
quotidianosanita.it, 10 settembre 2016

Daniele Piccione
# REMS. Per superare l’infelice emendamento: antidoti per il legislatore
www.news-forumsalutementale.it/ 30 agosto 2016

Patricia H. Hasbach, Nalini Nadkarni, Tierney Thys, Emily Gaines, Lance Schnacker
# Nature Imagery in Prisons Project: The Impact on Staff and Inmates in Solitary Confinement
www.apa.org/ 2016 APA Annual Convention, August 5, 2016
... Inmates indicated that exposure to videos had a positive impact on mood. The majority of E-B inmate survey respondents (91%) agreed or strongly agreed that they felt calmer  when they watched the nature videos. 80% indicated that this calm was sustained for several hours afterward, 78% agreed or strongly agreed that they remembered the nature videos when they got angry or agitated and felt more calm, and 67% indicated that the nature imagery project contributed to more positive relationship with staff. Over 80% of survey respondents stated that exposure to nature videos made their time easier, 7% stated that it made it more difficult, and the remainder indicated no effect.

Azza AbuDagga, Sidney Wolfe, Michael Carome, Amanda Phatdouang, E. Fuller Torrey | Public Citizen’s Health Research Group - The Treatment Advocacy Center
# Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses in County Jails: A Survey of Jail Staff’s Perspectives
www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/ July 14, 2016
About half (54.4%) of the jails had implemented housing or staffing changes to accommodate the seriously mentally ill inmates. Specifically, > 33.9% reported sending mentally ill offenders to facilities other than jail; > 27.8% had implemented inmate housing-facility changes (such as increasing the number of beds reserved for people with mental illness); > 27.4% reported hiring full- or part-time non-law-enforcement staff members (including nurses, social workers, and psychiatrists); and > Only 3.5% reported hiring deputies with experience in dealing with seriously mentally ill people

Allison V. Downer, Robert L. Trestman
# The Prison Rape Elimination Act and Correctional Psychiatrists
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 44:9–13, 2016
Research has consistently found that at any given time in the United States, there are more mentally ill individuals in jails and prisons than in psychiatric facilities. In the NPREC standards, inmates with mental illness were specifically identified as an at-risk group for sexual assault; consistent estimates suggest that 12 to 13 percent of prison rape allegations involve an inmate with mental illness or intellectual limitations, eight times the proportion of the general inmate population...

Bonnie L. Green, Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, Alejandra Hurtado de Mendoza, Mihriye Mete, Dana D. DeHart, Joanne Belkamp
# Trauma Experiences and Mental Health Among Incarcerated Women
American Psychological Association, 2016

Three factors described theobserved patterns of trauma exposure: family dysfunction (FD), interpersonal violence (IPV), andexternal events (EE). Life events were analyzed as a separate group of items. FD and IPV eachcontributed independently to the odds of having each of the 4 mental disorders studied; significant oddsratios were in the range of 1.38–2.05. All 3 factors contributed to the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Theonly diagnosis to which stressful life events made a unique contribution was to the likelihood of havingPTSD.

Seena Fazel, Adrian J Hayes, Katrina Bartellas, Massimo Clerici, Robert Trestman
# Mental health of prisoners: prevalence, adverse outcomes, and interventions
www.thelancet.com/ July 14, 2016
More than 10 million people are imprisoned worldwide, and the prevalence of all investigated mental disorders is higher in prisoners than in the general population. Although the extent to which prison increases the incidence of mental disorders is uncertain, considerable evidence suggests low rates of identifi cation and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Prisoners are also at increased risk of all-cause mortality, suicide, self-harm, violence, and victimisation, and research has outlined some modifi able risk factors... 

Matt DeLisi
# Zeroing in on violent recidivism among released prisoners
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 3 June 2016
Substantial heterogeneity exists among the criminal offender population, and with 30 million individuals released from prisons worldwide each year, the identification of those who are most likely to perpetrate future violence is essential. Fazel and colleagues’ study in The Lancet Psychiatry is an important advance for enabling such identifications...

Seena Fazel, Zheng Chang, Thomas Fanshawe, Niklas Långström, Paul Lichtenstein, Henrik Larsson, Susan Mallett
# Prediction of violent reoffending on release from prison: derivation and external validation of a scalable tool
Lancet Psychiatry, 2016 June ; 3(6): 535–543
More than 30 million people are released from prison worldwide every year, who include a group at high risk of perpetrating interpersonal violence. Because there is considerable inconsistency and inefficiency in identifying those who would benefit from interventions to reduce this risk, we developed and validated a clinical prediction rule to determine the risk of violent offending in released prisoners

Seena Fazel, Stal Biorkly
# Methodological Considerations in Risk Assessment Research

in International Perspectives on Violence Risk Assessment, 2016, pp.16-25
In this chapter we emphasized some different approaches for further progress in violence risk assessment research. We did not present a comprehensive and detailed overview ofthe many issues involved, but chose to focus on some key issues and those that may be feasible to address. Our main point, however, is to underscore that research on violence risk assessment is in need of innovation.

Ministero della Salute | Ministero della Giustizia
# Relazione al Parlamento sul Programma di superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari
Giugno 2016

Doris A. Fuller, Elizabeth Sinclair, Jeffrey Geller, Cameron Quanbeck, John Snook
# Going, Going, Gone: Trends and Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds, 2016
Treatment Advocacy Center, June 2016
37,679 staffed beds remain in state hospitals. Adjusted for population growth, this represents a 17% reduction in the bed population since 2010, when 43,318 beds remained, and a 96.5% drop from peak hospital numbers in the 1950s. 11.7 beds remain per 100,000 people. The functions the hospitals once performed for people severely disabled by mental illness—treatment, structure, shelter—were lost, and the people who needed those functions were “transinstitutionalized” to other large settings, such as jails and prisons...

Derek Gilna
# U.S. Prisons Filled with America’s Mentally Ill
Prison Legal News, June, 2016, page 14

Recent data indicates that over a million mentally ill people are incarcerated annually, cycling in and out of jails. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that almost a quarter of all prisoners suffer from serious mental illnesses, and many complain of inadequate treatment by prison and jail medical staff who often change or discontinue the psychotropic drugs they were receiving to treat their conditions. In most correctional facilities, suicidal prisoners are placed in solitary confinement and monitored by guards rather than by qualified mental health professionals in a treatment setting.

Greta Agnifili
# La responsabilità penale dello psichiatra
LUISS, 2016
Gli elementi costitutivi del delitto colposo presentano dunque una duplice natura: psicologica - come assenza di volontà dell’evento -, e normativa - come violazione di regole cautelari -. Il primo requisito ha carattere negativo e traccia una netta linea di demarcazione tra la fattispecie colposa e quella dolosa... Quanto al requisito positivo, ai fini dell’integrazione della fattispecie criminosa si richiede la presenza di “negligenza o imprudenza o imperizia”, ovvero “l’inosservanza di leggi, regolamenti, ordini o discipline”. Da ciò emerge la dimensione normativa della colpa, come contrarietà del comportamento concretamente posto in essere dall’agente a quello considerato doveroso sulla base dei canoni di diligenza, prudenza o perizia o dei dettami imposti nelle norme e regole cautelari...

Seena Fazel, Zuzanna Fiminska, Christopher Cocks, Jeremy Coid
# Patient outcomes following discharge from secure psychiatric hospitals: systematic review and meta-analysis
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 208, 2016
Over the past two decades, there have been large increases in the numbers of secure psychiatric hospital beds, which some have argued amounts to a reinstitutionalisation of psychiatric patients. Costs per patient are substantially more in such hospitals, with some estimates of £152 000 per year per patient in the UK at low secure institutions and £273 000 in high secure hospitals and an estimated overall budget of over £1 billion. In England, this is equivalent to 19% of the overall mental health budget and represents its largest single component. However, the evidence for patient benefit in such hospitals is limited ...

Rachel Claire Judges
# An Exploration into the Value of Protective Factors in Violence Risk Assessment of Psychiatric Inpatients
University of Nottingham, May 2016
This thesis explores the value of including protective factors in the violence risk assessment and risk management processes of forensic mental health services. More specifically it investigates whether assessment of protective factors improves predictive accuracy of violence risk assessment tools, and discusses the implications for clinical practice. The impact on patient motivation to change is also considered. A critique is presented of the Historical Clinical Risk-20 Version 3, one of the most popular and widely used violence risk assessment tools.

Joe Simpson
# Psychopharmacology in Jails: An Introduction
The Carlat Psychiatry Report - May 2016
When it comes to antipsychotic medications, in addition to all of the typical antipsychotics such as fluphenazine (Prolixin) and haloperidol (Haldol) most jails will have on formulary several of the standard atypicals, including aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperdal), and ziprasidone (Geodon). You will quickly discover that quetiapine rivals bupropion as an abused medication. Inmates prize its effects on sleep, and it also seems to provide a relaxing effect. Many inmates will claim to have psychotic symptoms in an effort to obtain quetiapine. For some reason, they don’t seem as interested in olanzapine.

Gary Cordner | Community Oriented Policing Services
# People with Mental Illness
www.cops.usdoj.gov/ May 2006

Neither jail nor prison is a good setting for mental health treatment, if such treatment is even available. People with mental illness often get worsewhile incarcerated, and tragedies involving victimization and suicide are too common.66 In the long run, criminal justice incarceration of the mentally ill harms the lives of those people, interferes with the proper operation of jails and prisons, and accomplishes little or no long-term solution to the original crime-and-disorder problems that led to arrest and incarceration in the first place. Referral, treatment, and civil commitment for people with mental illness should be preferred over arrest and criminal justice incarceration as reasonses to minor crime-and-disorder problems.

Assemblea parlamentare del Consiglio d'Europa
# Raccomandazione n. 2091 (2016) - Gli argomenti che sconsigliano uno strumento giuridico del Consiglio d'Europa riguardante le misure involontarie in psichiatria
Trasmessa l'11 maggio 2016

Doris A. Fuller
# Prevalence of Treated and Untreated Severe Mental Illness by State
www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/ May 17, 2016
With an estimated 356,000 inmates with serious mental illness in America’s jails and prisons and 3.8 million adults untreated for one of the two most serious mental illnesses, the risk of being incarcerated is nearly 10% for those whose schizophrenia or severe bipolar is not treated.

Kiran Sukeri, Orlando A. Betancourt, Robin Emsley, Mohammed Nagdee, Helmut Erlacher
# Forensic mental health services: Current service provision and planning for a prison mental health service in the Eastern Cape
South African Journal of Psychiatry, 06 May 2016
Currently, the majority of correctional centres in the Eastern Cape do not have permanent psychological services and psychiatric services are non-existent. There are twenty two psychologists in all correctional centres in South Africa. None of the correctional centres have an onsite psychiatric unit. A serious implication of this is that an increasing number of mentally ill persons are incarcerated due to the lack of initial assessments...

European Court of Human Rights
# Case of Murray v. The Netherlans (Application no. 10511/10)
Strasbourg, 26/04/2016

Human Rights Watch
# France: Inadequate Mental Health Care in Prisons. Detention Conditions, Lack of Treatment Increase Suffering
www.hrw.org/ April 5, 2016
Human Rights Watch interviewed 50 prisoners, prison staff, and medical professionals in eight prisons, as well as government officials and others. When their condition deteriorates, prisoners with psychosocial disabilities are in some cases transferred to psychiatric hospitals against their will and isolated in conditions that can constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international law, Human Rights Watch found. “I prefer 1,000 times to be in a cell than in an isolated room in the hospital, my arms and feet tied down as if I were an animal,” said Sarah (pseudonym), a prisoner who has previously been sent to psychiatric hospitals...

Human Rights Watch
# Double Punishment. Inadequate conditions for Prisoners with Psychosocial Disabilities in France

# Double peine. Conditions de détention inappropriées pour les personnes
www.hrw.org/ April 2016
The last comprehensive study on mental health in French prisons, published in 2004, found that almost a quarter of inmates had psychosis: 8 percent of men and 15 percent of women had schizophrenia – much higher than the 0.9 percent among of France’s general population. Estimates by people interviewed for this report by Human Rights Watch in 2015 – prison directors, psychiatrists, the inspector of prisons, government officials and prisoners themselves – suggest the proportion of prisoners with psychosocial disabilities in prison remains high. 

Gemma Brandi
# La concentrazione della follia in carcere: anomalia o normalità cui adattarsi?
www.ristretti.org/ Aprile 2016

Venivano e vengono avviati, infatti, alla Osservazione Psichiatrica quei detenuti mai o mal valutati nelle fasi del giudizio  di merito e condannati come presunti sani di mente, che però tali non erano e non sono; le persone che in udienza di convalida di arresto presentano franchi scompensi e i quadri di confine che oggi si preferisce definire “cattivi”, quanti cioè mostrano disagi complessi, trattati sul territorio nei Servizi Psichiatrici di Diagnosi e Cura attraverso prese in carico limitate alla emergenza, risultando pressoché impossibile, con gli attuali strumenti della Salute Mentale, rispondere in maniera salda e costante ai problemi di persone da inseguire, più che da seguire. 

Christine Tartaro
# Keeping Mentally Ill Offenders Out of Jail
American Jail Association, Apr 19, 2016
During the second half of the 20th century, the United States embarked on a movement to deinstitutionalize individuals with mental illness, and this initiative resulted in the rapid decline of available psychiatric beds. In 1955, there was one psychiatric bed in public hospitals for every 300 people. By 2004, there was to one bed per 3,000 people and correctional facilities were housing three times more people with serious mental illness than hospitals (Torrey et al, 2010). Ironically, New York actually closed a State psychiatric hospital only to re-open the same set of buildings as a correctional facility to serve inmates with several mental illnesses

Marvin S. Swartz, Allison G. Robertson
# Mental Health Courts: Does Treatment Make a Difference?
Psychiatric Services 67:4, April 2016

Patrick R. Krill, Ryan Johnson, Linda Albert
# The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys
Journal of Addiction Medicine, February 2016
Rates of substance use and other mental health concerns among attorneys are relatively unknown... This study measured the prevalence of these concerns among licensed attorneys... A sample of 12,825 licensed, employed attorneys completed surveys, assessing alcohol use, drug use, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress... Attorneys experience problematic drinking that is hazardous, harmful, or otherwise consistent with alcohol use disorders at a higher rate than other professional populations. Mental health distress is also significant. These data underscore the need for greater resources for lawyer assistance programs, and also the expansion of available attorney-specific prevention and treatment interventions.

John Dale Dunn
# Senator Cornyn and the Inmates
www.americanthinker.com/ February 26, 2016

Paula Ditton Henzel, Jim Mayfield, Andrés Soriano, Barbara E.M. Felver
# Behavioral Health Needs of Jail Inmates in Washington State
www.ofm.wa.gov/ Washington State - Department of Sociale & Health Services, January 2016
We found a substantial degree of overlap between the Department of Social and Health Services DSHS client population and those entering jail. The majority (86 percent) of individuals booked into jail in 2013 were recent or former DSHS/HCA (Health Care Authority)clients. A similar overlap has been documented for those released from Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities: 80 percent of persons released from DOC facilities had received DSHS services. Recognizing criminal justice system-involved individuals as a shared population has led DSHS and DOC to improve data share agreements and initiate re-entry partnerships.

Leah G. Pope, Kim Hopper, Chelsea Davis, David Cloud
# First-Episode Incarceration. Creating a Recovery-Informed Framework for Integrated Mental Health and Criminal Justice Responses
www.vera.org/ January 2016
While there have been significant shifts in the understanding of mental health over the past 50 years, many of the responses to people with mental illness have changed very little. In the mid-1950s more than half a million people were held in U.S. psychiatric institutions for long periods and often in deplorable conditions. Sixty years later, an equivalent number of people with mental illness are held in the nation’s prisons and jails on any given day. 

Valentina Calderone
# "E tu slegalo subito", una campagna di civiltà
Il Manifesto, 22 gennaio 2016
"E tu slegalo subito", un imperativo categorico scelto come titolo dalla neonata campagna per l'abolizione della contenzione, presentata ieri nella sala del Senato di Santa Maria in Aquiro. Un imperativo ma anche una risposta, quella che Franco Basaglia soleva dare agli operatori che gli chiedevano cosa fare di fronte a un paziente legato al letto. E tu slegalo subito, appunto.

Dahlia Lithwick
# Prisons Have Become America’s New Asylums. Mentally ill people are locked up for trivial reasons and then get much worse
www.slate.com/ Jan. 5 2016
A 2014 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center notes bluntly that “prisons and jails have become America’s ‘new asylums.’ ” Ten times more mentally ill people are now in jails and prisons than in state psychiatric hospitals: In 2012, approximately 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness were in prisons and jails, while about 35,000 severely ill patients were in state psychiatric hospitals. Many of these inmates would have been in hospitals prior to the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1960s, but now there are not enough beds, and many mental health hospitals have been closed down...

Ministero della Salute - Ministero della Giustizia
# Relazione al Parlamento sul processo di superamento degli OPG

# Allegati
Dicembre 2015

Matteo Luca Andriola
# Gli ex manicomi e quella chiusura mai arrivata.
www.lettera43.it/ 25 Ottobre 2015
Ritardi. Maltrattamenti. Polemiche. Una legge chiude gli Ospedali psichiatrici, ma nel 2015 in Italia ci sono ancora internati. Colpe e numeri di una impasse.Gli effetti di questa legge avranno ripercussioni pure sulle carceri, dato che i detenuti un tempo inviati negli Opg per il periodo canonico di osservazione di 30 giorni, adesso andranno nelle sezioni psichiatriche nei penitenziari, non migliorando senz’altro neppure la situazione di tali strutture, dove secondo dati del 2013, i disturbi mentali riguarderebbero circa il 40% dei detenuti, cosa del resto condannata dalla Corte europea dei diritti umani.

Carl Salzman, Richard I. Shader
# Not Again: Benzodiazepines Once More Under Attack
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology: October 2015 - Volume 35 - Issue 5 - p 493–495
It seems that we are again in the midst of a new storm of concern about an epidemic of benzodiazepine (BZ) overuse, misuse, and abuse. The first concern, in the 1980s, posited BZs as an epidemic of excessive prescribing and was frequently mentioned in books, movies, and numerous lay magazine articles. There was also concern that BZs were abused or misused, caused addiction with difficult withdrawal symptoms, or taken without medical supervision by large numbers of people.

Casey Tolan
# A psychologist is leading the largest jail in America and helping rethink incarceration and mental health
http://fusion.net/ October 20, 2015
CHICAGO—Home to about 10,000 inmates, Cook County Jail takes up a huge swath of land on Chicago’s southwest side. It’s the largest single jail in America, and because about a third of its inmates are mentally ill, it also doubles as the largest mental health institution in the country. So it makes sense that the jail’s new warden, Nneka Jones Tapia, is a clinical psychologist. Since she was promoted to her job five months ago, Jones Tapia has helped to reimagine how the jail operates. She’s trying to create a jail that doesn’t just keep people locked up but gives them treatment and supports them even after they go free.

# Timothy Williams, A Psychologist as Warden? Jail and Mental Illness Intersect in Chicago, www.nytimes.com/ July 30, 2015

Andrea Pugiotto
# Morire di Tso nell’Italia del terzo millennio
http://ilmanifesto.info/ 19 agosto 2015
La morte di Andrea Soldi durante l’esecuzione di un Tso è una metonìmia. Narra qualcosa di più generale che trascende il fatto in sé, pur gravissimo, lasciando intravedere nodi irrisolti nel rapporto tra autorità e libertà individuale.

Jeffrey Guina, Sarah R. Rossetter, Bethany J. DeRhodes, Ramzi W Nahhas, Randon S. Welton,
# Benzodiazepines for PTSD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Journal of Psychiatric Practice Vol. 21, No. 4, July 2015
The results of this systematic review suggest that BZDs should be considered relatively contraindicated for patients with PTSD or recent trauma. Evidence-based treatments for PTSD should be favored over BZDs. 

Federal Public Defender’s Office | Speakers: Thomas Price, Michelle Guyton
# CLE Seminar. The Brain on Prison
http://or.fd.org/ Portland, Oregon, June 17, 2015

It is time we recognize that the system is broken and that, current prison conditions traumatize the brains of those incarcerated. These conditions are not a substitution for flogging, but are a flogging of the most important organ in the human body. And if that is not cruelty, and injustice, what constitutes it? 

Mary Jane England, Adrienne Stith Butler, Monica L. Gonzalez (eds)
# Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders: A Framework for Establishing Evidence-Based Standards
www.nap.edu/ Board on Health Sciences Policy; Institute of Medicine; 2015
Mental health and substance use disorders affect approximately 20 percent of Americans and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Although the current evidence base for the effects of psychosocial interventions is sizable, subsequent steps in the process of bringing a psychosocial intervention into routine clinical care are less well defined. The data from research supporting these interventions have not been well synthesized, and it can be difficult for consumers, providers, and payers to know what treatments are effective. This report details the reasons for the gap between what is known to be effective and current practice and offers recommendations for how best to address this gap by applying a framework that can be used to establish standards for psychosocial interventions.

Michael Ollove
# New Efforts to Keep the Mentally Ill Out of Jail
The Pew Charitable Trusts  Research & Analysis  Stateline, May 19, 2015 
According to a 2009 study cited by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, an estimated 2 million adults with serious mental illnesses are jailed in the course of a year. Studies, including one from the Urban Institute, say they tend to stay in jail longer than those without mental illnesses, return to jail more often and cost local jurisdictions more money while incarcerated. More frequently than not, they are jailed for minor offenses, such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace or illicit drug use.

S. Young, D. Moss, O. Sedgwick, M. Fridman, P. Hodgkins
# A meta-analysis of the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in incarcerated populations
Psychological Medicine (2015), 45, 247–258
Forty-two studies were included in the analysis. ADHD prevalence was higher with screening diagnoses versus diagnostic interview (and with retrospective youth diagnoses versus current diagnoses). Using diagnostic interview data, the estimated prevalence was 25.5% and there were no significant differences for gender and age. Significant country differences were noted. Compared with published general population prevalence, there is a fivefold increase in prevalence of ADHD in youth prison populations (30.1%) and a 10-fold increase in adult prison populations (26.2%). 

Rivista di Psicodinamica Criminale
# Interventi con gli uomini maltrattanti
Anno VIII – n. 2 luglio 2015
I programmi per uomini autori di violenza devono assicurarsi che le compagne dei soggetti coinvolti siano informate sugli obiettivi e sui contenuti del programma, sui suoi limiti non sottovalutando la possibilità dell' insorgere di ulteriori episodi di violenza. Le donne devono essere messe a conoscenza che la partecipazione al programma da parte del compagno potrebbe essere un modo per manipolarle e controllarle ulteriormente. Le donne devono essere messe a conoscenza della possibilità di ricevere esse stesse supporto e di rientrare in progetti di sicurezza. Le informazioni fornite dalle compagne dovrebbero essere incluse nell’accertamento dei rischi e nella valutazione dell’autore...

# Corte Costituzionale, Sentenza n. 186/2015 (Decisione del 24/06/2015 - Deposito del 23/07/2015)

La Corte Costituzionale ha respinto il ricorso promosso dal Tribunale di sorveglianza di Messina contro la legge 81/2014 sul superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari, giudicando non fondata la questione di legittimità costituzionale. Il ricorso contestava la legge 81/2014 nelle parti in cui stabilisce che l’accertamento della pericolosità sociale “è effettuato sulla base delle qualità soggettive della persona e senza tenere conto delle condizioni (cosiddette ambientali)  di cui all’articolo 133, secondo comma, numero 4, del codice penale” e che “non costituisce elemento idoneo a supportare il giudizio di pericolosità sociale la sola mancanza di programmi terapeutici individuali”. La Consulta conferma la piena legittimità costituzionale della legge 81, laddove in sostanza ci dice che un malato povero, emarginato, senza casa o abbandonato dai servizi non può diventare, per questa ragione, socialmente  pericoloso e finire in OPG. Come troppo spesso sinora è accaduto...

Corte d'Appello di Bologna
# Circolare in merito alla chiusura degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari. Rapporti dell'Autorità giudiziaria con i responsabili delle Residenze pr l'Esecuzione delle Misure di Sicureazza (REMS). Rapporti con la Polizia Penitenziaria nel corso della esecuzione della misura
Circolare n. 5406/PROT. - 22 luglio 2015

Andrea Pugiotto
# Dalla chiusura degli Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari alla (possibile) eclissi della pena manicomiale
Costituzionalismo.it, Fasc. 2 | 2015
Dopo ripetuti rinvii, la legge n. 81 del 2014 conferma finalmente la data (31marzo 2015) per la chiusura dei sei Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari operanti in Italia. A tale dispositivo abolizionista si accompagna l’introduzione di un corpo normativo inedito in grado, se integralmente applicato, di trasformare la misura di sicurezza detentiva da regola – fin qui seriale, meccanica, inumana e degradante – a legale eccezione. Il saggio ricostruisce la coerenza sistematica del testo legislativo, evidenziandone i profili di indubbio spessore costituzionale, in ideale dialettica con il Tribunale di Sorveglianza di Messina che, all’indomani dell’entrata in vigore, ha già impugnato davanti alla Corte costituzionale la novella in uno dei suoi snodi fondamentali (la ridefinizione della diagnosi di pericolosità sociale del reo non imputabile).

Giuliano Balbi
# Infermità di mente e pericolosità sociale tra OPG e REMS
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 20 luglio 2015
1. Infermo di mente autore di reato e controllo sociale. Considerazioni introduttive. – 2. Infermità di mente e pericolosità sociale come strumenti di elusione dei principi di derivazione illuministico-liberale. – 3. Un gioco a carte truccate: pericolosità sociale e doppio binario. – 4. La l. 81/2014. Le misure di sicurezza detentive tra sussidiarietà e limite di durata. – 5. Sulla vaghezza del concetto di infermità mentale. – 6. Il tempo sospeso. Tra REMS che non aprono e OPG che non chiudono. 

Stefano Cecconi
# Chiudere gli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari, per aprire spazi ai diritti e alla cittadinanza
www.stopopg.it/ Roma, 14 luglio 2015
Siamo consapevoli che la chiusura degli Opg sarà graduale ma niente può e deve fermarla. Chiudere gli Opg sarà una vittoria per tutti. Per le persone che hanno subito e subiscono l’internamento, in primo luogo. Ma anche per gli operatori degli Opg e dei servizi di salute mentale è una grande vittoria, e un’opportunità per restituire più qualità al lavoro. Perché sappiamo che costruire l’alternativa alla logica manicomiale dipende dalla qualità del lavoro nei servizi. La strada è in salita...

Human Rights Watch
# Callous and Cruel. Use of Force against Inmates with Mental Disabilities in US Jails and Prisons
http://www.hrw.org/ May 2015
It is well known that US prisons and jails have taken on the role of mental health facilities. This new role for them reflects, to a great extent, the limited availability of communitybased outpatient and residential mental health programs and resources, and the lack of alternatives to incarceration for men and women with mental disabilities who have engaged in minor offenses... What is less well known is that persons with mental disabilities who are behind bars are at heightened risk of physical mistreatment by staff. 

Alan R. Felthous
# Enforced Medication in Jails and Prisons: The New Asylums
www.albanygovernmentlawreview.org/ 5/1/2015

That the dramatic reduction in the hospitalization of seriously mentally ill individuals has been a factor in the progressive and substantial increase in the numbers of incarcerated individuals in the United States is well known. Less well publicized is the failure of state governments to keep up with the increasing need for hospitalization within correctional systems and in some cases the withdrawal of hospital services for mentally disordered inmates in need of this level of care. Textbooks on correctional psychiatry do not address the nature and purposes of security hospitals. Neither have courts addressed whether the community practice of administering enforced medication in a mental hospital or ward should apply as well for incarcerated persons in need of this level of treatment ...

Zheng Chang, Paul Lichtenstein, Henrik Larsson, Seena Fazel
# Substance use disorders, psychiatric disorders, and mortality after release from prison: a nationwide longitudinal cohort study
www.thelancet.com/ May 2015
Every year more than 30 million people circulate through prisons, and most will eventually return to their communities. The period after release is associated with high risk for various health outcomes, and many studies have provided an  epidemiological description of high mortality in people released from prison compared with the general population...

Mona Sobhani
# Extending the Logic of the Juvenile Justice System to a Separate Justice System for Mentally Ill Offenders
www.albanygovernmentlawreview.org/ 2015
Overall, this analysis suggests that the method the current criminal justice system implements in handling mentally ill offenders are outrageously inadequate, inhumane and unsustainable. Mental health courts, in which mentally ill offenders are linked with treatment, are a good option, and there should be a push for other counties to consider the benefits of these specialty courts.

Mirella Ruggeri, Chiara Bonetto, Antonio Lasalvia, Angelo Fioritti, Giovanni de Girolamo, Paolo Santonastaso, Francesca Pileggi, Giovanni Neri, Daniela Ghigi, Franco Giubilini, Maurizio Miceli, Silvio Scarone, Angelo Cocchi, Stefano Torresani, Carlo Faravelli, Carla Cremonese, Paolo Scocco, Emanuela Leuci, Fausto Mazzi, Michela Pratelli, Francesca Bellini, Sarah Tosato, Katia De Santi, Sarah Bissoli, Sara Poli, Elisa Ira, Silvia Zoppei, Paola Rucci, Laura Bislenghi, Giovanni Patelli, Doriana Cristofalo, Anna Meneghelli, and The GET UP Group

# Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Multi-Element Psychosocial Intervention for First- Episode Psychosis: Results From the Cluster-Randomized Controlled GET UP PIANO Trial in a Catchment Area of 10 Million Inhabitants
Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2015

Interest in psychosocial interventions to facilitate recovery and reduce long-term disability in patients with firstepisode psychosis (FEP) has been growing. Clinical  guidelines for this population recommend an early and integrated approach, based on psychosocial interventions. The results of multi-element interventions, including early detection strategies; individual, group, and family therapy; case management; and pharmacological treatment, are promising, with symptom reduction, improved quality of life, increased social and cognitive functioning, lower inpatient admission rates, less in-hospital time, improved insight, greater treatment satisfaction, decreased substance abuse, and fewer self-harm episodes...

New South Wales Government | Family & Community Services
# Violence Risk Assessment Practice Guide. Practice Guide for Practitioners who Support People with Disability
www.adhc.nsw.gov.au/
In violence risk assessment the primary information that is gathered relates to known risk factors. Risk factors refer to a condition or characteristic of the person or their environment that research has demonstrated is predictive of future violence i.e. it is evidence based.

Carol Fisler
# Toward a New Understanding of Mental Health Courts
www.courtinnovation.org/ The Judges' Journal, Volume 54, Number 2, Spring 2015
Mental health courts, like other innovations in justice, began as an experiment, testing the proposition that linking defendants with mental illnesses to court-supervised, community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration would lead to improved mental health outcomes and reduced criminal justice involvement. A handful of mental health courts were launched in the late 1990s, a few dozen by 2003, and by 2010 approximately 300 were operating in more than 40 states, involving tens of thousands of defendants.

Hon. John H. Guthmann
# Ramsey County Mental Health Court: Working with Community Partners to Improve the Lives of Mentaly Ill Defendants, Reduce Recidivism, and Enhance Public Safety
Wiliam Mitchell Law Review, vol. 41:3, 2015

While mental health courts are not the only answer, they are an important part of the answer. RCMHC (Ramsey County Mental Health Court) has a proven record of success.260 With continued public support, RCMHC and other mental health courts in Minnesota and around the country will continue to enhance public safety, reduce recidivism, and help individuals with mental illness who commit crimes improve their lives. 

Ana Swanson
# A Shocking Number of Mentally Ill Americans End Up in Prison Instead of Treatment
Washington Post, April 30, 2015
According to a report by the Treatment Advocacy Center, which includes the anecdotes above, American prisons and jails housed an estimated 356,268 inmates with several mental illness in 2012—on par with the population of Anchorage, Alaska, or Trenton, New Jersey. That figure is more than 10 times the number of mentally ill patients in state psychiatric hospitals in the same year—about 35,000 people.

Michele Passione, # Opg, le tante resistenze alla chiusura, il Manifesto, 21.4.2015

# Dopo la chiusura degli Opg. Psichiatri e magistrati: “Tutto risolto? Neanche per sogno”, www.ilFarmacistaonline.it/ 18 Aprile 2015

Mario Iannucci # Il “superamento degli OPG” fra incompetenza, scelleratezza, ipocrisia e ignavia, www.ristretti.org/ 16 aprile 2015

Andrea Fiorello # Halden, un'altra idea del carcere, www.ilpost.it, 10 aprile 2015

Jessica Benko # The Radical Humaneness of Norway’s Halden Prison. The goal of the Norwegian penal system is to get inmates out of it, www.nytimes.com/ March 26, 2015

Francesco Maisto
# OPG: dalla Legge ai fatti
www.pensiero.it/ 8 aprile 2015
 

Francesco Maisto
# Quale superamento dell'OPG?
www.questionegiustizia.it/ 7 aprile 2015

Giulia Alberti
# Chiudono gli ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari (?): la situazione e le prospettive in Lombardia
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 31 Marzo 2015
Dal 31 marzo 2015 gli ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari sono chiusi e le misure di sicurezza del ricovero in ospedale psichiatrico giudiziario e dell'assegnazione a casa di cura e custodia sono eseguite esclusivamente all'interno di strutture sanitarie realizzate dalle regioni secondo i seguenti criteri: a) esclusiva gestione sanitaria all'interno delle strutture; b) attivita' perimetrale di sicurezza e di vigilanza esterna, ove necessario in relazione alle condizioni dei soggetti interessati, da svolgere nel limite delle risorse umane, strumentali e finanziarie disponibili a legislazione vigente; c) destinazione delle strutture ai soggetti provenienti, di norma, dal territorio regionale di ubicazione delle medesime...

Saverio Migliori
# 31 marzo 2015: chiudono gli Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari. La sfida di Montelupo Fiorentino e
l’esigenza di scelte condivise e coraggiose
Montelupo Fiorentino, 01 aprile 2015

Didier Fassin
# L’asile et la prison
Esprit, Mars-avril 2015

Plus tolérantes à l’égard de la maladie mentale, mais aussi mieux équipées pour la prendre en charge en dehors de l’espace asilaire, les sociétés contemporaines sont devenues plus sévères, à l’inverse, contre la petite délinquance et plus généralement la criminalité, en enfermant plus et plus longtemps et en tenant de moins en moins compte de la santé mentale des personnes qu’on punit et des conséquences psychologiques d’une telle sanction...

Adrian P Mundt, Sinja Kastner, Jan Mir, Stefan Priebe
# Did female prisoners with mental disorders receive psychiatric treatment before imprisonment?
Psychiatry (2015) 15:5
Throughout the world, high prevalence rates of mental disorders have been found in prison populations, especially in females. It has been suggested that these populations do not access psychiatric treatment. The aim of this study was to establish rates of psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments prior to imprisonment in female prisoners and to explore reasons for discontinuation of such treatments

Jessica Benko
# The Radical Humaneness of Norway’s Halden Prison. The goal of the Norwegian penal system is to get inmates out of it.
New York Times, March 26, 2015

Toshi A Furukawa
# The relationship between depression and violent crime
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 2 March 2015
The incidence of violent crime in the cases with depression was 3·7% (men) and 0·5% (women) during the mean follow-up of 3 years compared with 10·7% (men) and 2·7% (women) for schizophrenia within 5 years of first diagnosis. In patients with bipolar disorder the incidence was 9·5%, in patients with traumatic brain injury was 8·8%, and in patients with epilepsy was 4·2%.

Adrian P. Mundt, Winnie S. Chow, Margarita Arduino, Hugo Barrionuevo, Rosemarie Fritsch, Nestor Girala, Alberto Minoletti, Flávia Mitkiewicz, Guillermo Rivera, María Tavares, Stefan Priebe
# Psychiatric Hospital Beds and Prison Populations in South America Since 1990 Does the Penrose Hypothesis Apply?
JAMA Psychiatry, 72(2):112-118, 2015
Since 1990, the numbers of psychiatric beds have substantially decreased in South America, while the sizes of the prison populations have increased against a background of strong economic growth. The changes appear to be associated because the numbers of beds decreased more extensively when and where the sizes of prison populations increased. These findings are consistent with and specify the assumption of an association between the numbers of  psychiatric beds and the sizes of prison populations. More research is needed to understand the drivers of the capacities of psychiatric hospitals and prisons and to explore reasons for their association.

Massimo Casacchia, Maurizio Malavolta, Valeria Bianchini, Laura Giusti, Vittorio Di Michele, Patricia Giosuè, Mirella Ruggeri, Massimo Biondi, Rita Roncone, Direttivo sezione italiana World Association for Psychological Rehabilitation (WAPR)
# Il superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari: a new deal per la salute mentale?
Riv Psichiatr 2015; 50(5): 199-209
... una nuova era, che idealmente segue alla Legge 180, durante la quale si dovrà con determinazione perseguire l’obiettivo di curare e aiutare le persone affette da disturbi mentali e autrici di reato al di fuori di istituzioni concentrazionali, sul territorio, con il coinvolgimento delle reti familiari e sociali e delle migliori risorse tecnico- cientifiche, e di monitorarne con accuratezza i processi e gli esiti. 

Terry A. Kupers
# A Community Mental Health Model in Corrections
Stanford Law & Policy Review, vol 26:119, 2015
When it comes to the treatment of individuals with mental illness in correctional facilities, the central question is: “Who is the prisoner?” Is he or she a human being with feelings and rights? Or is the prisoner an animal who should be kept in a cage with no social interactions nor productive activities,  and then sprayed with immobilizing gas as punishment for behaviors the prisoner with serious mental illness cannot control?

Dustin DeMoss
# The Nightmare of Prison for Individuals With Mental Illness
www.huffingtonpost.com/ 03/25/2015
The result is that many people with mental illness who are incarcerated find themselves back in prison again. The fact of the matter is that our mental health system has failed as the federal government continues to deny and ignore the promises made to improve the system by taking responsibility from the states. The result is that recidivism rates among the mentally ill is soaring

Stefano Rossi
# La salute mentale attraverso lo spettro dei diritti umani
www.forumcostituzionale.it/ 22 marzo 2015
Benché, nella maggior parte degli Stati occidentali, si siano adottate misure significative per includere nella legislazione tutele per i diritti e le libertà delle persone con sofferenza mentale, permangono comunque “faglie” nelle quali si realizzano, ancor oggi, aperte violazioni dei diritti umani, spesso giustificate da visioni politiche o sociali che intendono la malattia mentale come espressione di pericolosità sociale, stigmatizzando la patologia e la persona che ne è portatrice.

CQ Researcher. In-depth reports on today's issues
# Prisoners and Mental Illness. Are too many with psychiatric problems behind bars?
www.cor.pa.gov/ March 13, 2015, vol. 25, n. 11, pp. 241-264

Thousands of people with schizophrenia, severe depression, delusional disorders or other mental problems are locked up, often in solitary confinement. While some committed violent crimes and remain a threat to themselves or other inmates and prison staff, many are incarcerated for minor offenses, simply because there is no place to send them for treatment. The number of mentally ill inmates has mushroomed in recent years as states have closed their psychiatric hospitals in favor of outpatient community mental health centers that typically are underfunded and overcrowded. In an attempt to reduce the influx of mentally ill inmates, some 300 specialized mental health courts have diverted them into court-monitored treatment instead of jail.

Sarah Glowa-Kollisch, Jasmine Graves, Nathaniel Dickey, Ross MacDonald, Zachary Rosner, Anthony Waters, Homer Venters
# Data-Driven Human Rights: Using Dual Loyalty Trainings to Promote the Care of Vulnerable Patients in Jail
www.hhrjournal.org/ Health and Human Rights 17/1 on March 12, 2015
Dual loyalty is an omnipresent feature of correctional health. As part of a human rights quality improvement committee, and utilizing the unique advantage of a fully integrated electronic health record system, we undertook an assessment of dual loyalty in the New York City jail system. The evaluation revealed significant concerns about the extent to which the mental health service is involved in assessments that are part of the punishment process of the security apparatus. As a result, dual loyalty training was developed and delivered to all types of health staff in the jail system via anonymous survey.

Thomas R. Blair, Keramet A. Reiter
# Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness: Ethical Challenges for Clinicians; In Response to Glowa-Kollisch et al.
www.hhrjournal.org/ July 2, 2015

Julia Stasch
# US jails are warehouses of sick, poor and low-risk people
www.theguardian.com/ 6 March 2015
Many jails today must do the jobs of mental health institutions, even though they lack the resources or expertise to treat the mentally ill... Research shows that serious mental illness affects an estimated 14.5% of men in jails and 31% of women - rates that are three to six times higher than in the general population.

Nancy Wolff, M. Gregory Chugo, Jing Shi, Jessica Huening, B. Christopher Frueh
# Screening for PTSD among Incarcerated Men: A Comparative Analysis of Computer-Administered and Orally Administered Modalities
Crim Justice Behav. 2015 February ; 42(2): 219–236
Trauma exposure is overrepresented in incarcerated male populations. Surveys of trauma exposure among incarcerated men have found rates of trauma exposure ranging from 62.4% to 100% compared with rates of 43% to 92% for community-based male populations. Moreover, incarcerated men, compared with men residing in the community, are more likely to report experiencing physical and sexual assaultive violence.

Paolo Giordano

# Gli ultimi internati della nostra storia. Così finisce un’idea di detenzione
www.corriere.it/ 9 marzo 2015

 Il 31 marzo è prevista la chiusura degli Opg. Le incognite sul futuro. Per i soggetti considerati gravi nuove «residenze» affidate alla Sanità... Ma sarebbe troppo comodo accodarsi alla scia dello sdegno comune, condannare gli Opg come luoghi isolati di sadismo sfrenato, senza rilevare la parte di responsabilità che ognuno di noi ha avuto in tutto questo: la convenienza di una nazione intera che, dopo avere applaudito a lungo se stessa per la chiusura dei manicomi, ha tollerato per decenni delle realtà perfino peggiori, in ragione della presunta pericolosità sociale di alcuni infermi... e forse è il concetto stesso di «pericolosità sociale» a essere errato...

Roger H. Peters, Harry K. Wexler, Arthur J. Lurigio
# Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders in the Criminal Justice System: A New Frontier of Clinical Practice and Research
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 2015, Vol. 38, No. 1, 1– 6
Health care problems are prevalent within offender populations. For example, more than two thirds of jail detainees and half of prison inmates have a substance use disorder, compared with 9% of people in the general population. Similarly, rates of serious mental illnesses (i.e., bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia) are 4 – 6 times higher in jails and 3– 4 times higher in prisons than in the general population...

Christy K. Scott, Michael L. Dennis, Arthur J. Lurigio
# Comorbidity Among Female Detainees in Drug Treatment: An Exploration of Internalizing and Externalizing Disorders
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 2015, Vol. 38, No. 1, 35–44
This study investigated the comorbidity of substance use disorders (SUDs) and other psychiatric disorders (OPDs) in a sample of female detainees enrolled in a jail-based drug treatment program. Comorbidity refers to disorders or classes of disorders that cooccur and often share risk factors, causes, and consequences. Co-occurring disorders are related to medical problems, suicide, unemployment, homelessness, arrests, and incarcerations (Mueser, Noordsy, Drake, & Fox, 2003). People with comorbidity are significantly more likely than people with only an SUD or an OPD to ignore medication orders; commit violent acts; endure recurring episodes of either type of disorder; and suffer from numerous adverse medical, legal, and social sequelae.

Beverly Frazier, Hung-En Sung, Lior Gideon
# The Impact of Prison Deinstitutionalization on Mental Health and Substance
Abuse Treatment Services in Local Communities
Health and Justice (2015) 3:9
By using a path analysis of the hydraulic model, we argue that social systems, similar to water moving in closed tubes, aspire to equilibrate. In other words, a decrease in prison population will not go without a corresponding increase in community mental health and substance abuse services. Social voids like those created by deinstitutionalization must be filled; and with states deinstitutionalizing offenders the toll is on their corresponding communities to address the needs of those offenders who are reentering after being incarcerated. In devising a policy and practice strategy to address the projected increase in the reentry population, leadership within communities for social and supportive services to ex-prisoners, specifically treatment services should be of primary concern. 

Holly M. Harner, Mia Budescu, Seth J. Gillihan, Suzanne Riley, Edna B. Foa
# Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Incarcerated Women: A Call for Evidence-Based Treatment
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy © 2013 APA, 2015, Vol. 7, No. 1, 58–66
The majority of women who enter the criminal justice system, most of whom are poor and women of color, have suffered from significant lifetime trauma exposure that can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)... we estimated the prevalence of PTSD and comorbid physical and mental health conditions in 387 incarcerated women sentenced to a maximum-security prison in the United States. Almost half (44%) of our sample met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD

Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. Conferenza Unificata
# Accordo concernente disposizioni per il definitivo superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari
24 febbraio 2015

Randeep Ramesh
# Hospital psychiatric detainees more at risk of preventable death. Deaths of more than 600 mentally ill detainees in England and Wales could have been avoided, says Equality and Human Rights Commission report
www.theguardian.com/ Monday 23 February 2015

S. Hoke
# Mental Illness and Prisoners: Concerns for Communities and Healthcare Providers

OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 20, No. 1, Manuscript 3, January 31, 2015
Rates of mental illness in the U.S. alone are burdensome. The U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) found that more than half of all inmates, or over than 1 million individuals, have a mental illness compared to 11% of the general population; and yet only 1 of 3 prison inmates and 1 of 6 jail inmates receive any form of mental health treatment...

Sam P. K. Collins
# Pennsylvania Overhauls Health Care For Mentally Ill Inmates
http://thinkprogress.org/ January 7, 2015

Rich Lord
# Pennsylvania prison system develops separate housing for mentally ill inmates
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 6, 2015
Inmates with serious mental illnesses will no longer be locked in cells all day, under new policies outlined Monday by state prison officials. The change, which follows scathing criticism of the Department of Corrections’ handling of mentally ill inmates, is meant to address one of the toughest tasks in prison management: tailoring discipline to an inmate’s diagnosis. In 2013, the state’s confinement of 800 to 1,000 mentally ill inmates in Restricted Housing Units — 23 hours per day in small, one-bed cells — was blasted by the U.S. Department of Justice and by advocates for the disabled.

Francesco Schiaffo
# La pericolosità sociale tra 'sottigliezze empiriche' e 'spessori normativi': la riforma di cui alla legge n. 81/2014
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 11 Dicembre 2014
Nell'ambito delle strategie per il superamento degli OPG, la legge n.81/2014 è intervenuta incidendo sugli assetti fondamentali della disciplina delle misure di sicurezza e, in particolare, sui criteri del giudizio di pericolosità sociale degli infermi e seminfermi di mente. Sotto quest'ultimo profilo, la riforma, per quanto criticata e oggettivamente discutibile per taluni aspetti, è parsa necessaria ad adeguare la disciplina di riferimento a fondamentali parametri di legittimità costituzionale ed impedire, quindi, «una certa dilatazione del concetto di pericolosità sociale» che, nella prassi giudiziaria, era già stata rilevata nel 2011 dalla Commissione parlamentare sul sistema sanitario nazionale.

Eduardo De Cunto
# Norma e normalità. Malattia mentale, diritti, responsabilità
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 2014
La normalità in ambito psichiatrico è aciò che l’individuo malato deve conquistare o ritrovare al termine del percorso terapeutico. Nella definizione del confine tra comportamento normale e patologico ci troviamo dunque alle prese con una serie di modelli che si vengono ad affiancare alle norme etiche, religiose, giuridiche, nel più ampio genus delle norme comportamentali. Nella definizione della norma si stabilisce un rapporto tra malattia mentale e regolamentazione giuridica, tra psichiatria e diritto, nell'interscambio di saperi, finalità, linguaggi.

Mark Olfson, Marissa King, Michael Schoenbaum
# Benzodiazepine Use in the United States
JAMA Psychiatry, December 17, 2014
In 2008, approximately 5.2% of US adults aged 18 to 80 years used benzodiazepines. The percentage who used benzodiazepines increased with age from 2.6% (18-35 years) to 5.4% (36-50 years) to 7.4% (51-64 years) to 8.7% (65- 80 years). Benzodiazepine use was nearly twice as prevalent in women as men. The proportion of benzodiazepine use that was long term increased with age from 14.7% (18-35 years) to 31.4% (65-80 years), while the proportion that received a benzodiazepine prescription from a psychiatrist decreased with age from 15.0% (18-35 years) to 5.7% (65-80 years). In all age groups, roughly one-quarter of individuals receiving benzodiazepine involved long-acting benzodiazepine use.

Senato - 12ª Commissione permanente (Igiene e sanità) - Palazzo Giustiniani, 11 novembre 2014

«Salute mentale, OPG e diritti umani»
# Maria Grazia De Biasi # Cesare Bondioli # Fabio Dito  # Gisella Trincas  # Stefano Cecconi  # Giovanna Del Giudice  www.senato.it |  www.stopopg.it/

Liat Ben-Moshe
# Prisons as the "New Asylums"
asylum winter 2014
In 2000 The American Psychiatric Association reported that as many as 20% of all prisoners were “seriously mentally ill”, while up to 5% were “actively psychotic” (APA, 2000). Other estimates appear to use a substantially more expansive definition of mental illness. Bureau of Justice  Statistics show that in 2005 more than half of all prison and jail inmates were reported as “having a mental health problem”. The reported prevalence of mental health problems amongst the imprisoned also seems to vary by race and gender...

T. Fovet, M. Bertrand, A. Amad
# Prescrire les psychotropes en milieu pénitentiaire. Prescription of psychotropic drugs in prison
La Lettre du Psychiatre • Vol. X - n° 6 - novembre-décembre 2014
... au moins 1 détenu sur 7 souffre d’une pathologie psychiatrique, ce qui correspond à une fréquence 4 à 10 fois supérieure à celle retrouvée dans la population générale. En prison, toutes les pathologies psychiatriques sont surreprésentées : troubles psychotiques, troubles de l’humeur, troubles de la personnalité, troubles anxieux et pathologies addictives. Les patients souffrant de troubles psychiatriques regroupent à la fois des sujets dont les troubles préexistaient à l’incarcération et des sujets sans antécédent psychiatrique, mais avec un terrain de vulnérabilité propice à la révélationde pathologies sous l’effet des nombreux facteurs de stress de la détention.

Gerard Drennan, James Wooldridge, Anne Aiyegbusi, Debbie Alred, Joe Ayres, Richard Barker, Sally Carr, Helen Eunson, Hilary Lomas, Estelle Moore, Debbie Stanton, Geoff Shepherd
Making Recovery a Reality in Forensic Settings
Centre for Mental Health and Mental Health Network, NHS Confederation 2014
The management of risk is, of course, fundamental to the success or failure of a forensic service aiming to support recovery. Despite acts of violence, many of the individuals in forensic mental health settings are also among the most vulnerable individuals in society. For many, the road to recovery starts with feeling safe. This often begins with feeling in control of oneself, having relationships that are characterised by hope, trust and compassion and by having safe living conditions.

Raffaele Bianchetti

# Sollevata questione di legittimità costituzionale in merito ai nuovi criteri di accertamento della pericolosità sociale del seminfermo di mente
www.penalecontemporaneo/ 14 Novembre 2014
# Trib. Sorveglianza di Messina, 16 luglio 2014 (ord.)
Al vaglio della Consulta è stata sottoposta quella parte della novella legislativa (art. 1, co. 1, lett. b, l. 81/2014) che dispone che l'accertamento della pericolosità sociale nei confronti dell'infermo e del seminfermo di mente deve essere effettuato dal magistrato - sia esso giudice di cognizione o magistrato di sorveglianza - «sulla base delle qualità soggettive della persona e senza tenere conto delle condizioni di cui all'articolo 133, secondo comma, numero 4, del codice penale», precisando che «non costituisce elemento idoneo a supportare il giudizio di pericolosità sociale la sola mancanza di programmi terapeutici individuali».

Antonella Calcaterra

# Sulla chiusura degli Opg

Il Garantista, 14 novembre 2014

Psichiatria Democratica
# Chi vuole chiudere veramente gli OPG?
Napoli 29 ottobre 2014
I progetti personalizzati costituiscono il cuore di ogni progettualità anche con l’individuazione delle risorse destinate e tempi di attuazione definiti. Insomma non posti letto (quindi NO REMS) ma progetti di vita che contemplino luoghi di risocializzazione e programmi operativi, a medio e lungo termine, di politiche di inclusione attraverso l’abitare e il lavoro...

Giulia Melani
# La funzione dell'OPG. Aspetti normativi e sociologici
www.altrodiritto.unifi.it/ 2014

Sara Magrin
# Il superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari: presa in carico delle persone con problemi di salute mentale autrici di reato e ascolto dei professionisti del territorio. L’applicazione della norma e la ricerca effettuata presso l’Ufficio di Esecuzione Penale Esterna di Verona
Università degli Stdi di Verona - Anno Accademico 2013-14

Tommaso Sannini

# Vizio di mente e pericolosità sociale. Aspetti storici, giuridici e sociologici

www.altrodiritto.unifi.it/ (2014)

Evan Mayo-Wilson, Sofi a Dias, Ifi geneia Mavranezouli, Kayleigh Kew, David M Clark, A E Ades, Stephen Pilling
# Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 1 October 2014

John R Keefe
# Heightened risk of false positives in a network meta-analysis of social anxiety
www.thelancet.com/psychiatry Vol 2 April 2015

Klara Latalova, Dana Kamaradova, Jan Prasko
# Violent victimization of adult patients with severe mental illness: a systematic review
Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 10, 2014
Relationship between victimization and violent behavior by patients with severe mental illness has been clearly confirmed. It is not clear whether past victimization predicts future violence, or past violence predicts future victimization, or both.

Encarnación Lozano Galván
# Alexithymia: indicator of communicative deficit in emotional health
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 132 ( 2014 ) 603 – 607
An area of recent interest in psychology is devoted to study the factors which affect mental health; an indicator of communicative deficit in emotional health is called alexithymia index. The aim of this project is to identify the presence of high levels of alexithymia in young students; which is a risk factor for psychopathology. The TAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale) was administered to a random sample of ESO and High School students between the ages of 14 and 20, (men and women) from the regions Zafra-Río Bodión and Tendudía, located in the province of Badajoz. The results obtained have allowed us to know that a considerable percentage of our young people show a high index of alexithymia, making us aware of the need for emotional intelligence work in education

Claudia C. Hurducas, Jay P. Singh, Corine de Ruiter, John Petrila
# Violence Risk Assessment. Tools: A Systematic Review of Surveys
International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 13:3, 181-192, 2014
According to a recent systematic review, over 150 risk assessment tools have specifically been developed to assess the risk of violence. These instruments include schemes  such as the Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20 , the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, and the Sexual Violence Risk-20. Such instruments are now used on multiple continents including North America, South America, Europe and Australia...

Dan J. Stein, Katie A. McLaughlin, Karestan C. Koenen, Lukoye Atwoli, Matthew J. Friedman, Eric D. Hill, Andreas Maercker, Maria Petukhova, Victoria Shahly, Mark van Ommeren, Jordi Alonso, Guilherme Borges, Giovanni de Girolamo, Peter de Jonge, Koen Demyttenaere, Silvia Florescu, Elie G. Karam, Norito Kawakami, Herbert Matschinger, Michail Okoliyski, Jose Posada-Villa, Kate M. Scott, Maria Carmen Viana, Ronald C. Kessler
# DSM-5 and ICD-11 Definitions of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Investigating "Narrow" and "Broad" Approach Depression And Anxiety, 31:494–505 (2014)
Diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have changed with each edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), including the recent release of DSM-5, reflecting in part debates about the distinctions between normal responses to traumatic stressors versus maladaptive reactions and the potential for inappropriate medicalization of suffering...

Corte di Cassazione, Sezione I

# Sentenza 12 settembre 2014, n. 37573

Ai fini del riconoscimento del vizio totale o parziale di mente, anche i “disturbi della personalità”, che non sempre sono inquadrabili nel ristretto novero delle malattie mentali, possono rientrare nel concetto di “infermità”, purché siano di consistenza, intensità e gravità tali da incidere concretamente sulla capacità di intendere o di volere, escludendola o scemandola grandemente, e a condizione che sussista un nesso eziologico con la specifica condotta criminosa, per effetto del quale il fatto di reato sia ritenuto causalmente determinato dal disturbo mentale

Michiel de Vries Robbé
# Protective Factors. Validation of the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk in Forensic Psychiatry
www.saprof.com, 2014
As the reliability and predictive validity of unstructured clinical judgments made by clinicians was disputed, empirically based lists of risk factors were developed aiming to provide for a more accurate prediction of violent behavior. The predictive validity of these actuarial tools (the enumeration of risk factors according to  a set algorithm in order to come to a final conclusion regarding the level of risk) for specific types of violence in specific populations is generally good...

Icro Maremmani, Angelo G. I. Maremmani, Sonia Lubrano, Roberto Nardini, Liliana Dell’Osso, Matteo Pacini
# Who are Resistant Patients? Quality of Treatment and Disease Control
Addictive Disorders & Thein Treatment, vol. 13, n. 3, september 2014
Almost in the Italian health care system, but we are supposing in all European countries, 33–38 younger addicts may count on earlier diagnosis and treatment occasions, although effective interventions are far from being proposed as first- ine choices, or, when featured, tend to be performers at ineffective dosages or for limited periods of time. Such a mismatch is the source of apparent resistance to treatment, which is not confirmed after the enrollment in a second- evel service conceived for resistant patients. In fact, this population shows a high rate of response to agonist  maintenance, when performed at average effective dosages, and with no dose limitation, and in a maintenance perspective with no preplanned or arbitrary taper-off phase

Lauri Tuominen
# Neurobiological Correlates of Personality Traits: A Study on Harm Avoidance and Neuroticism
University of Turku, Finland, 2014

Harm Avoidance and Neuroticism are traits that predispose to mental illnesses. Studying them provides a unique way to study predisposition of mental illnesses. Understanding the biological mechanisms that mediate vulnerability could lead to improvement in treatment and ultimately to pre-emptive psychiatry. These personality traits describe a tendency to feel negative emotions such as fear, shyness and worry. Previous studies suggest these traits are regulated by serotonin and opiate pathways.

Marco Pelissero
# Ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari in proroga e prove maldestre di riforma della disciplina delle misure di sicurezza
Diritto penale e processo 8/2014
Il d.l. 31 marzo 2014, n. 52, conv. in l. 30 maggio 2014, n. 81 proroga nuovamente il termine di chiusura degli ospedali psichiatrici giudiziari, avviato sin dal 2008, ma più chiaramente perseguito dalla l. n. 9/2012. Un esito scontato, viste le lentezze burocratiche ministeriali nel fissare i caratteri delle nuove strutture ed i lunghi tempi di effettiva attuazione a livello regionale. La disciplina si segnala, tuttavia, anche per la modifica di alcuni elementi della disciplina generale delle misure di sicurezza, i cui effetti sul sistema non sembrano essere stati adeguatamente soppesati e che segnalano ancora una volta, da un lato, la necessità di riforme di più ampio respiro del sistema e, dall’altro lato, l’urgenza di potenziare i percorsi terapeutico-riabilitativi non custodiali, dentro e fuori dal circuito penale.

Carl E. Fisher, David L. Faigman, Paul S. Appelbaum
# Toward a Jurisprudence of Psychiatric Evidence: Examining the Challenges of Reasoning from Group Data in Psychiatry to Individual Decisions in the Law
UC Hastings Research Paper No. 110, August 17, 2014
Psychiatry is an applied science. It thus shares the characteristic of all applied science in that it is ultimately applied at two levels – general and specific. Scientific research inevitably focuses on aggregate data and seeks to generalize findings across persons, places or things. However, in the courtroom, as is true in other applied settings, the focus is usually on an individual case. Thus, psychiatry presents the challenge inherent in all scientific evidence of reasoning from group data to an individual case, which is termed the “G2i problem.”

Dignity and Power Now | Patrisse Cullors, Mark-Anthony Johnson
# Impact of Disproportionate Incarceration of and Violence Against Black People with Mental Health Conditions In the World’s Largest Jail System
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/ A Supplementary Submission for the August 2014 CERD Committee Review of
the United States
People from racial minorities who have mental health conditions are routinely routed to the criminal justice system instead of to alternative, community-based programs shown to better address their needs. Based on extensive community outreach, Dignity and Power Now seeks to highlight race-based disparities in treatment of persons with mental health conditions in Los Angeles (LA) County jails. The largest jail system in the United States and the world, LA County Jails are often referred to as the nation’s  largest de-facto mental health hospital6 warehousing approximately 19,000 pre-sentenced and sentenced individuals.

Luca Cimino
# Il superamento degli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari: un’analisi critica
Rivista di Criminologia, Vittimologia e Sicurezza – Vol. VIII – N. 2 – Maggio-Agosto 2014
Attualmente i sei OOPPGG ospitano circa 900 reclusi, con un turnover di 600 persone all’anno; il 31% di essi è sottoposto ad una misura di sicurezza provvisoria e circa il 70% è autore di reati di scarsa rilevanza24. Si osserva pertanto che la popolazione degli internati in OPG non è omogenea né per bisogni sanitari o sociali, né per reati e possibilità di recupero, per cui si rende necessario definire in maniera precisa percorsi differenziati che partano dal presupposto di accertare in maniera puntuale ed approfondita la presenza di quei casi caratterizzati da una persistente pericolosità sociale da destinare alle strutture a gestione mista (REMS).

Sarah Liebowitz, Peter J. Eliasberg, Ira A. Burnim, Emily A. Burnim
# A Way Forward: Diverting People with Mental Illness from Inhumane and Expensive Jails into Community-Based Treatment that Works
www.aclusocal.org/ July 2014
Jails have become warehouses for people with mental illness. Nationwide, nearly half a million inmates with mental illness are in local jails, and an estimated 10-25% have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia. In Los Angeles County alone, at least 3,200 inmates with a diagnosed severe mental illness crowd the jails on a typical day, which constitutes about 17% of the jail population. These numbers capture only the number of inmates with a diagnosed severe mental illness: the actual number may well be higher. Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has called L.A.’s jail system “the nation’s largest mental hospital.”

Darrell Steinberg, David Mills, Michael Romano
# When did prisons become acceptable mental healthcare facilities?
www.law.stanford.edu/ Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project 2014
We can no longer ignore the massive oppression we are inflicting upon the mentally ill throughout the United States... We have created conditions that make criminal behavior all but inevitable for many of our brothers and sisters who are mentally ill. Instead of treating them, we are imprisoning them. And then, when they have completed their sentences, we release them with minimal or no support system in place, just counting the days until they are behind bars once again...

Sinead Frances Devine
# An investigation of implicit measurement techniques amongst low risk and forensic samples
https://cora.ucc.ie/ Doctoral thesis, 2014
Studies suggest that the link between personality disorder and offending has important implications for treatment and risk management.The literature is also suggesting that not only it is important to understand personality disorders in forensic populations in the context of treatment and risk but also in understanding what specific personality disorders are linked to offending behaviours. There is now much evidence that personality disorder is related to offending. Studies as outlined above too indicate how some personality disorders other than antisocial are related to particular types of offending behaviour...

Robert Rigg
# “Are there non Prisons?” Mental health and the criminal justice system in the United States
University of Denver Criminal Law Review, vol. 4, 2014
The result of the application of Penrose’s Law is increased crime rates and incarceration of the mentally ill. We have come full circle. Brown v. Plata appears to have been predictable and inevitable based on studies that have been completed by the psychiatric community. Until policy makers are willing to establish and maintain  sustained funding for a mental health treatment system run by medical personnel, changes  in existing delivery systems are the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We end where we began, with Scrooge asking: “Are there no prisons?” Unfortunately, the answer today is the same as it was then: Yes, “Plenty of prisons.”

Stefano Ferracuti, Giuseppe Nicolò, Rinaldo Perini
# Opg. Il futuro sono le Rems?
www.quotidianosanità.it Giovedì 10 Luglio 2014 
Il processo di chiusura degli Opg è complesso e pieno di criticità. Anche le nuove residenze per l'applicazione delle misure di sicurezza presentano molte incognite i cui esiti futuri non sono immediatamente prevedibili. I facili entusiasmi sono quindi da evitare. Ecco alcune delle problematiche...

Seth J. Prins,
# Prevalence of Mental Illnesses in U.S. State Prisons: A Systematic Review
Psychiatric Services vol. 65, n. 7, July 1, 2014
People with mental illnesses are understood to be overrepresented in the U.S. criminal justice system, and accurate prevalence estimates in corrections settings are crucial for planning and implementing preventive and diversionary policies and programs. Despite consistent scholarly attention to mental illness in corrections facilities, only two federal self-report surveys are typically cited, and they may not represent the extent of relevant data. This systematic review was conducted to develop a broader picture of mental illness prevalence in U.S. state prisons and to identify methodological challenges to obtaining accurate and consistent estimates.

StopOPG nazionale | Stefano Cecconi, Giovanna Del Giudice, Patrizio Gonnella
# Superamento OPG : per applicare bene la nuova legge
www.stopopg.it/ 1 luglio 2014
Secondo la nuova Legge la regola deve essere una misura di sicurezza diversa dal ricovero in Opg (e in Rems), salvo situazioni determinate che devono diventare l’eccezione. E ciò tanto più perché la pericolosità sociale non può essere dichiarata, o confermata, solo perché la persona è emarginata, priva di sostegni economici o per sola mancanza di programmi terapeutici individuali. La Legge in sostanza ci dice che un malato povero, emarginato, senza casa o abbandonato dai servizi non può diventare, per questa ragione, socialmente pericoloso e finire in OPG.

Sharam Kohan
# Re- or trans-institutionalization of Mentally Ill, A failure of Deinstitutionalization
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/29 june 2014
Although the number of conventional psychiatric hospital beds has continued to decrease in most states, recent data suggest that we may already be witnessing a new phenomenon of ‘reinstitutionalization’. The provision of supported housing, the number of forensic beds and the prison population increased significantly in the United States.

Joe Gorton, Keith Crew
# Evaluation of the Black Hawk County Mental Health Jail Diversion Program
http://firstdcs.com/ Iowa Department of Correctional Services - First Judicial District June 2014

The total estimate for annual cost savings produced by the mental health jail diversion program is $237,509. According to the officials from the First Judicial District Department of Correctional Services, annual program costs are $100,000. Therefore, the annual fiscal benefit of the program (without cost estimates for prosecutions, prison confinement, and taxpayer funded victimization programs) is estimated at $137,509.

Marin County Civil Grand Jury
# Jail Checkup: What’s the Price of a Clean Bill of Health? Report Date – June 10, 2014
www.marincounty.org/ Public Release Date – June 13, 2014
Some very specific needs of the mentally ill incarcerated in our Jail must be addressed, whether or not a contractual arrangement is struck for outside medical services. Among the most challenging issues facing Jail administrators is the need to make some accommodation for mentally ill inmates who are candidates for involuntary psychiatric medication. The mentally ill, whether in custody or not, have the right to refuse medication. Without their informed consent, involuntary medication is available only in circumstances in which the patient is a danger to himself or others or in which the patient is severely disabled as a result of the mental illness.

Eric B Elbogen, Sally C Johnson
# Violence, suicide, and all-cause mortality
The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 6 - 8, June 2014
One of the unique aspects of this study—that violence and suicide were analysed simultaneously—has an important implication for how we as a society perceive people with mental illness. News coverage of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders often focuses on violence and crime. Much less attention is paid to suicide and self-harm in people with severe mental illnesses. Notably, multivariate analyses in this article showed a substantially stronger link between schizophrenia and suicide than between schizophrenia and violence.

Darrell Steinberg, David Mills, Michael Romano | Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project
# When did prisons become acceptable mental healthcare facilities?
www.law.stanford.edu/ May 2014
We can no longer ignore the massive oppression we are inflicting upon the mentally ill throughout the United States. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people.

C Chérrez-Bermejo, R Alás-Brun
# Consumo de sustancias y trastornos de salud mental en agresores de violencia de género ingresados en prisión. Un estudio descriptivo
Rev Esp Sanid Penit 2014; 16: 29-37
Estudio descriptivo sobre una muestra de 106 varones ingresados en prisión por violencia de género. Estimación de porcentajes de consumo perjudicial de sustancias y de diagnósticos psiquiátricos al ingreso en prisión con uso de la historia clínica informatizada del Servicio Navarro de Salud. Resultados: el 61’3% realizan un consumo perjudicial de sustancias. El porcentaje es mayor que en otros estudios realizados sobre poblaciones de agresores denunciados y detenidos. Las sustancias mayormente implicadas son alcohol y cocaína...

Shirley S. Wang
# Medications Cut Violence Among Mentally Ill in Study. Report Comes Amid Concerns Sparked by High-Profile Mass Shootings
http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/ 5.8.2014
Researchers from Oxford and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm used Swedish national registries to examine more than 80,000 people who were prescribed antipsychotics or mood stabilizers from 2006 to 2009, as well as their psychiatric diagnoses and criminal convictions during the same period. They found a significant 45% drop in convictions for violent crime, such as homicide, assault, robbery or any sexual offense, during periods when the individuals were thought to be taking their medications, based on prescription and dispensing records, regardless of their diagnosis, compared with when they were off meds. Patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder exhibited a 24% decrease in convictions when taking mood stabilizers.

Jeanine Chamond, Virginia Moreira, Frédérique Decocq, Brigitte Leroy-Viémon
# La dénaturation carcérale. Pour une psychologie et une phénoménologie du corps en prison
L'information psychiatrique 2014/8 (Volume 90)
Les auteurs montrent comment l’incarcération provoque une dégradation profonde de la corporéité vécue qui en altère la naturalité première. La dialectique du corps propre qui se décline entre être un corps et avoir un corps est bouleversée par le conflit d’appropriation du corps entre détenu et pouvoir pénitentiaire. Réaffirmer la propriété de son corps et son autodétermination peut passer par la pratique sportive parfois à risque mais aussi par de multiples atteintes volontaires à son intégrité corporelle. Nombre de manifestations psychopathologiques peuvent être comprises comme des  odalités de réaction, de révolte et de résistance à la réification du corps contraint. À l’extrême, pour les condamnés à de longues peines, c’est le corps lui-même, réduit à une pure négativité, qui dans une réduction vertigineuse devient la prison et accomplit la dissociation du corps et de l’esprit, prison du corps qui laisse comme seul recours l’évasion par le suicide.

Suann Kessler
# Mental Health Parity: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Parity Definition Implications
Hastings Science and Technology Law Journal, vol. 6:2, Summer 2014
At least twenty-eight percent of American adults suffer from a mental or addictive disorder. Thus, it may seem surprising that attempts to establish federal guidelines for mental health services under health insurance plans did not take place until the 1970s. Yet the fact that health insurance coverage for mental health services differs drastically from that of other medical services is not as startling when taking into account mental health’s history, and its complete isolation from the medical field.

Seena Fazel, Achim Wolf, Camilla Palm, Paul Lichtenstein
# Violent crime, suicide, and premature mortality in patients with schizophrenia and related disorders: a 38-year total population study in Sweden
Lancet Psychiatry 2014; 1: 44–54
In some studies, investigators have reported increased relative risks over time for suicide, death, and convictions of a violent offence,but secular trends have made these data difficult to interpret.The emerging reinstitutionalisation of patients in some regions of the world might have been partly driven by concerns about deinstitutionalisation, although broader socio political factors are probably important.

Gian Luigi Gatta
# Aprite le porte agli internati!
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 6 Giugno 2014

Un ulteriore passo verso il superamento degli OPG e una svolta epocale nella disciplina delle misure di sicurezza detentive: stabilito un termine di durata massima (applicabile anche alle misure in corso, a noi pare) | L. 30 maggio 2014, n. 81 (Conversione in legge, con modif., del d.l. 31 marzo 2014, n. 52).

Gian Luigi Gatta
# Revoca del ricovero in OPG per decorso della durata massima: un primo provvedimento
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/ 16 Giugno 2014

# Tribunale di Roma - VIII Sezione Penale - Ordinanza 3 giugno 2014

George Szmukler, Rowena Daw, Felicity Callard
# Mental health law and the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities
Int J Law Psychiatry. May 2014; 37(3): 245–252
People with a mental illness may be subject to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), depending on definitions of terms such as ‘impairment’, ‘long-term’ and the capaciousness of the word ‘includes’ in the Convention's characterisation of persons with disabilities. Particularly challenging under the CRPD is the scope, if any, for involuntary treatment. Conventional mental health legislation, such as the Mental Health Act (England and Wales) appears to violate, for example, Article 4 (‘no discrimination of any kind on the basis of disability’), Article 12 (persons shall ‘enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life’) and Article 14 (‘the existence of a disability shall in no case justify a deprivation of liberty’).

Patrick W. Corrigan, Benjamin G. Druss, Deborah A. Perlick
# The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care
Psychological Science in the Public Interest 2014, Vol. 15(2) 37–70
We addressed the question by examining ways in which stigma interferes with care-seeking decisions and behaviors at individual and system levels. Stigma was found to be a complex variable impacting decisions at public, self, and structural levels. These various types are influenced by knowledge, culture, and social network

Seena Fazel, Johan Zetterqvist, Henrik Larsson, Niklas Långström, Paul Lichtenstein
# Antipsychotics, mood stabilisers, and risk of violent crime
www.thelancet.com/ 8 May 2014
In 2006–09, 40 937 men in Sweden were prescribed antipsychotics or mood stabilisers, of whom 2657 (6·5%) were convicted of a violent crime during the study period. In the same period, 41 710 women were prescribed these drugs, of whom 604 (1·4 %) had convictions for violent crime. Compared with periods when participants were not on medication, violent crime fell by 45% in patients receiving antipsychotics and by 24% in patients prescribed mood stabilisers.

American Psychological Association

# Mental Illness Not Usually Linked to Crime, Research Finds. Most offenders didn’t display pattern of crime related to mental illness symptoms over their lifetime, according to study