title: Public evaluations of unrepresented defendants.
abstract: Previous articles have addressed the ethical and legal issues involved when private psychiatrists perform forensic evaluations on criminal defendants before the defendants have access to counsel; but there have been few studies addressing evaluations requested through public facilities and by clinicians other than psychiatrists. The authors present the results of a detailed study of defendants admitted for evaluations of competency to proceed to a forensic inpatient unit in one state, as well as data from a national survey of state forensic facilities. The studies were designed to measure the incidence of unrepresented defendants in a population referred for competency evaluation, as well as to examine the reasons for such occurrences. The data reveal that court-ordered evaluations of unrepresented defendants are rare, but continue to exist.
authors.affiliation: Program for Forensic Psychiatry, Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80262, USA.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Beven
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Covey
mesh_terms: D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000592:standards; D003416:Criminal Law; D003625:Data Collection; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000592:standards*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States