Physicians Must Honor Refusal of Treatment to Restore Competency by Non-Dangerous Inmates on Death Row

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 764-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Zonana
Keyword(s):  
Psychotropic Medications ◽  
Positive Symptoms ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Refusal Of Treatment ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Practicing Physicians

The vignette described in the introduction of this symposium raises a number of ethical and legal problems for physicians who work for correctional institutions and death row inmates. They are not confined to correctional physicians, however, as states have requested aid from practicing physicians in the community, and even from other states, when conflicts have arisen in the treatment of death row inmates as they near the date of execution. As outlined, the case involves a 48-year-old man with a long history of schizophrenia, initially diagnosed at age 19. Compliant with medication, he remained generally free from positive symptoms-delusions and hallucinations. Nonetheless, he committed two murders during a robbery and was sentenced to death. Since his incarceration, the defendant has consistently refused psychotropic medications and has been forcibly medicated on several occasions when he exhibited violent outbursts and was overtly psychotic.

Intelligent and Civilized Sentiments

Lethal State ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 111-152
Author(s):  
Seth Kotch
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
State Law ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tangible Result

This chapter tells the history of some of the elements that contributed to the declining use of the death penalty in North Carolina. Journalist Nell Battle Lewis railed against the practice as racist, un-Christian, and barbaric. Paul Green echoed those sentiments as he campaigned to save death row inmates from death. Yet their activism had little tangible result. More significant was a change in state law that allowed juries to formally recommend mercy following a conviction, meaning that judges were no longer required to deliver mandatory death sentences. The end of the mandatory death sentences ended executions, which ceased in 1961 and would not resume until 1984.

Decades in Death’s Twilight

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-163
Author(s):  
Emily Gray
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Solitary Confinement ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Death Row ◽  
Entire Duration ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Death Row Inmates ◽  
History Of

The average amount of time that death row inmates spend on death row has ballooned over the past decade, and for death row inmates in the state of Texas, the entire duration of that increased time will be spent in solitary confinement. This raises the following question: Is solitary confinement now considered to be part of the punishment, one that may be worse than the death penalty itself? This article discusses the history of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and cites scientific literature which posits that long-term solitary confinement can cause serious psychological damage. It examines “death row syndrome,” a term that refers to the psychological illness or disorder exhibited by an inmate who has spent a prolonged period of time in harsh conditions on death row. The article reviews the Polunsky Unit, which currently houses Texas’s death row and has been described as one of the worst prisons in the United States. The article also discusses the long history of Lackey claims, which allege that prolonged confinements under a death sentence breach the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The unresolved dissent within the Supreme Court regarding this subject is presented and discussed. This article contends that the prolonged solitary confinement of a Texas inmate on death row is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and concludes that the only solution is to end the practice of automatic and permanent solitary confinement.

scholarly journals A Case of Priapism with Risperidone

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almari Ginory ◽  
Mathew Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Side Effect ◽  
Penile Erection ◽  
Corpus Cavernosum ◽  
Psychotropic Medications ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Risk ◽  
New Onset

Priapism is a urologic emergency defined as a prolonged, possibly painful, penile erection. There are several known causes of priapism including psychotropic medications. One of the mechanisms by which antipsychotics are believed to induce priapism is through alpha-1 antagonism. This is case of a 50-year-old male with a history of schizophrenia with previous priapism related to trazodone, who presents with new onset priapism associated with risperidone. In this case, the treatment of priapism includes discontinuation of the offending agent and drainage of the corpus cavernosum twice along with intracavernosal phenylephrine injections. It is important to educate patients on priapism as a possible side effect of medications. It is also important to consider previous episodes of medication-induced priapism when prescribing psychotropic medications as this may increase the patient’s future risk of priapism.

Predicting Institutional Violence among Death Row Inmates: The Utility of the Sorensen and Pilgrim Model

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline K. Buffington-Vollum ◽  
John F. Edens ◽  
Andrea Keilen
Keyword(s):  
Death Row ◽  
Institutional Violence ◽  
Death Row Inmates

Deficits in Reward Decision-Making on the Iowa Gambling Task in Justice-Involved Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lana Vedelago ◽  
Iris Balodis ◽  
Kaitlyn McLachlan ◽  
Heather Moulden ◽  
Vanessa Morris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Switching Patterns ◽  
History Of ◽  
Shift Strategy

Deficits in reward decision-making are thought to contribute to criminal offending. These impairments have been measured in laboratory studies using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) which assesses implicit learning of different reward/punishment contingencies. This study compared IGT performance between a sample of justice-involved individuals and community-based individuals without an offending history. Participants included 100 adults from two Canadian federal correctional institutions (34% female, Mage = 39.14 ± 9.74) and a comparison group of 89 community adults with no history of offending (39% female, Mage = 37.04 ± 10.79). Responses on the IGT were analyzed for overall net score, learning across the task, and deck switching patterns. Associations between IGT performance and sentence characteristics and static factors assessment of recidivism risk were examined for the justice-involved group. The justice-involved group performed significantly worse than community adults in terms of net score. While the community group learned the advantageous strategy across the task, justice-involved participants exhibited minimal learning. This effect was moderated by recidivism risk within the justice-involved group, with individuals at low risk, but not medium/high risk, showing improvement over the blocks of the task. Finally, the justice-involved group also made greater use of an ineffective “win-stay/lose-shift” strategy. These results suggest that, compared with community participants without history of offending, incarcerated adults tend to employ maladaptive decision-making strategies that yield worse overall outcomes and the extent of impairment is associated with recidivism risk.

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