The Chicago's Best Idea Series presents:

"Why the Legal Standard for Involuntary Commitment to Mental Hospitals Doesn't Matter (Much)" 

By Mark Heyrman
Clinical Professor of Law

Tuesday, Nov. 6 2007
12:15 pm
Room II

In the 1970's most states tightened their standards for involuntary commitment.  During the past fifteen years the movement has been in the opposite direction--relaxing those standards.  This talk will apply ideas developed by former Law School Dean Norval Morris to explore the effects (if any) these changes have had and will have on the number of persons involuntarily confined in psychiatric hospitals and why other institutional arrangements are substantially more important in explaining past and future fluctuations in the number of such commitments.