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Psychiatric imprisonment is involuntary imprisonment of people on the grounds that they are considered psychiatrically insane. In many countries, people behaving in such a way considered insane by a judge can be put into a mental institution without trial. Critics argue that an open society based on freedom and personal responsibility has no room for treatment of this nature. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. ... Insanity (sometimes, madness) is a semi-permanent severe disorder of the mind, typically as a result of mental illness. ... A judge or justice is an appointed or elected official who presides over a court. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ... A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard. ... An open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson. ...

In some countries, activities such as homosexuality and adultery can result in such imprisonment. In countries such as the former U.S.S.R., and modern day China such facilities were, or currently are, routinely used to imprison and "treat" dissidents. Currently in China "political harm to society" is legally a dangerous mental disorder and the authorities are instructed to arrest those who make anti-government speeches, write reactionary letters or "express opinions on important domestic and international affairs". Since its coining, the term homosexuality has aquired multiple meanings. ... Adultery is generally defined as consensual sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their lawful spouse. ... Soviet redirects here. ... A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively opposes an established opinion, policy, or structure. ... The Chicago Police Department arrests a man An arrest is the action of police or other authority, or even in some circumstances a private civilian, to apprehend and take under guard a person who is suspected of committing a crime. ...

There are also claims that in North Korea, Canada and the U.S.A., amongst others, that similar events are going on on a smaller scale. It is part of both the criminal justice and hospital systems in the countries in which it happens, and it often has an ambiguous relationship to these. For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... The study of criminal justice traditionally revolves around three main components of the criminal justice system: police courts corrections Nowadays, it is sometimes argued that psychiatry is also a central part of the criminal justice system. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ...

Dr. Thomas Szasz argued that while these practices may have begun as an alternative to punishment, specifically retributive justice, in the U.S.A. they had become by the 1960s a means of defining mere differences as illnesses. Dr. Thomas Stephen Szasz (born April 15, 1920 in Hungary) is Professor Emeritus in Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. ... In society, <<a href=b class=external free title=b>b>punishment</<a href=b class=external free title=b>b> is the practice of imposing something unpleasant on a wrongdoer. ... Retributive justice is a theory of criminal justice wherein punishments are justified on the grounds that the criminal has created an imbalance in the social order that must be addressed by action against the criminal. ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ...

See also

• Criminal justice
• Involuntary commitment
• Psychiatry
• Freedom of association
• Personal conduct
• Psikhushka
• Political psychiatry

The study of criminal justice traditionally revolves around three main components of the criminal justice system: police courts corrections Nowadays, it is sometimes argued that psychiatry is also a central part of the criminal justice system. ... Involuntary commitment is the practice of using legal means or forms as part of a mental health law to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward without their informed consent, against their will or over their protests. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental illness. ... Freedom of association is the right enjoyed by free adults to mutually choose their associates for whatever purposes they see fit. ... This article should be transwikied to wiktionary Personal conduct is a set of precepts that one individual tries to observe in daily life. ... Psikhushka (психушка) is a colloquialism for psychiatric hospital in Russian language. ...

External links

• Psychiatric Imprisonment in Oregon
• Amnesty International

Bibliography

Black Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China's Democracy Movement, by George Black and Robin Munro (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993