Seclusive Space: Crisis Confinement and Behavior Modification in Canadian Forensic Psychiatric Settings

Abstract

This essay offers a theoretical reflection emerging from the a u thors’ qualitative empirical studies examining ethical practice and mental health care in Canadian forensic psychiatric settings. Forensic psychiatry is a specialized area of psychiatry LUI!Ling the fields of mental health, law, and criminology. Forensic psychiatry implies the use of (para)medical psychiatric knowledge or ‘opinion’ concerning patients who have legal issues. According to the American Academy of PsychiaLry and the Law, forensic psychiatry involves ‘’civil, criminal, correctional, regulatory or legislative matters, and ... specialized clinical consultations in areas such as risk assessment or employmenL’ (AAPL 2005). While Lhe AAPL’s eLhics guidelines acknowledge the ‘special hazards’ and ‘potential for unintended bias’ in the practice of forensic psychiatry—particularly in the courtroom — the Academy urges its members Lo ‘minimize such hazards’ and to ‘strive’ to reach an ‘objective opinion’ (AAPL 2005). Our research focuses on the clinical use of forensic psychiatry within correctional facilities, where it is applied to a cap Live population of inmaLes who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder linked, in some respects, to their incarceration.