Have you ever been placed in a locked isolation room from a mental hospital?

Or solitary confinement?

I worked in a psychiatric hospital 50 years ago, I was used in several processes and procedures as a “patient” including “wet pack” where you are in a bathing suit and they wrap you with several layers of cold wet sheets, they must not let skin touch skin when they are done. They finished the training session by locking me in the isolation room. Set a clock and watched me for two intervals. Most patients when they went into “wet pack” would be in for 6 or more intervals. Solitary has minimum bathroom facilities, isolation has only a bed bolted to the floor.

No, but I have heard that pleading not guilty by reason of insanity (to murder) tends to be a much more miserable outcome than being sentenced to jail. Subjective, of course, and hopefully you’re safer from other prisoners in such a mental facility.

@Zaku Death penalty is is dead in the end. We had one patient that was involved with a death but they never figured if the patient had an active part in the other person death.

@Tropical_Willie True. Of course, often the death penalty isn’t on the table.

I also heard that it tends to be very difficult to ever get out of treatment after having plead not guilty by reason of insanity – a prison sentence will tend to be much shorter, in general.

@Zaku Second degree in my state is like 12 years to life. You can’t just plead insanity and get in the a hospital, there are many steps to show there a reason to institutionalize the person. There are many steps, but not impossible steps, to get released from the hospital.

I did not know that psychiatric patients were still placed in isolation rooms That is rather barbaric. The only justification that I can think of is that they present a threat to others. How often does that happen? Do the patients spend the rest of their lives in isolation?

@LostInParadise
I did not know that psychiatric patients were still placed in isolation rooms That is rather barbaric. The only justification that I can think of is that they present a threat to others 1) I don’t know about today, if they still use isolation rooms. 2) They were placed in there because they were a danger to themselves or to others, 50 years ago they were just starting to widely using anti-psychotic medications like Thorazine.

How often does that happen? It depended on the patient and had to be a written order (like a prescription) from a doctor. It could only be done for a length of time less than 4 hours at hospital and once a day, they had to be observed by a member of the staff.

Do the patients spend the rest of their lives in isolation? No

@Tropical_Willie , Thanks for your answer. You point to one big difference between hospital isolation and solitary confinement. 4 hours in a day is a lot different from the several years of solitary confinement that some prisoners receive.

In prisons when they “put them in the hole” (solitary confinement), most are only in there for 23 hours day and have one hour of “solo” exercise outside the cell block.

Solo exercise is still isolation.

The “insanity defense” is used in less than 1% of all criminal cases, because it’s a potentially worse outcome for the accused. If it is used and successfully argued and you’re found “not guilty by reason of insanity” that means you can’t be held criminally responsible. Not criminally responsible because you were aware or in control of your actions. Which means you’re a danger to society. Which means the state is obligated to confine you until such a time as it determines you are no longer a danger to society. Which could be never. And since you’re not criminally responsible they can’t confine you prison, so it’s the mental ward for you. Which is often worse than prison.

So yeah, no lawyer worth his/her salt is even going to use the “insanity defense” unless they believe it’s legitimately the case. Otherwise you’d be better off just pleading “guilty” and taking the 10 or 15 years in the hoosegow.

As far as solitary confinement in prison – it’s suppose to be a temporary thing, a few months tops. But many prisons use it to box up inmates they’d just rather not deal with, with many prisons holding inmates in solitary for years (I believe the state of California has one inmate who’s been kept in solitary confinement for more than two decades). It’s unfortunate that solitary confinement hasn’t yet met the right legal challenge because in my view use of it for more than a handful of days absolutely constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

@Zaku I also heard that it tends to be very difficult to ever get out of treatment after having plead not guilty by reason of insanity

Ask this guy.

I was never placed in isolation when I was in the psych ward. It would frighten me a great deal.

*Addendum to my last post: After looking stuff up I found out the record for being held in solitary confinement in the United States is an inmate in Louisiana. One inmate there, a man named Albert Woodfox, was held in solitary for 44 years – from 1972 until he was unconditionally released from prison earlier this year after his original conviction was overturned.