University of Virginia Library

ACLU Will Discuss
'Lost' Mental Inmates

By SAM BARNES

Three lawyers and a
psychiatrist will discuss
"Mental Illness, Commitment
and Loss of Civil Liberties" in
a program sponsored by the
American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) tonight at 8 at the
Gordon Avenue Branch
Library lower level meeting
room.

Panelists will discuss
problems of finding and
working for the release of
inmates "lost" in mental
institutions while waiting to be
declared sane enough to stand
trial. Speakers will also discuss
dangers to the average citizen
of such commitment.

Asst. Psychiatry and Law
Prof. P. Browning Hoffman,
Asst. Commonwealth's Atty.
William Crews, Central Virginia
Chapter ACLU cooperating
attorney Robert Ellsworth and
ACLU Staff Council member
David Thelin will speak.

Virginia state law does not
require periodic re-examination
of mental hospital inmates,
meaning that many persons
who should be considered
competent for trial are ignored,
according to an ACLU source.

An ACLU mental health
project now underway includes
drafting model laws to insure
due process rights of the
involuntarily committed,
protecting rights of individuals
awaiting trial in mental
hospitals and defending a
patient's rights while he is in an
institution.

With half a million people
involuntarily committed every
year, occurrences of being
lost are not as rare as might be
expected, the ACLU says.