PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Robert D. Miller
AU  - Jonathan Olin
AU  - Gary Beven
AU  - Jonathan Covey
TI  - Public Evaluations of Unrepresented Defendants
DP  - 1995 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 93--103
VI  - 23
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/23/1/93.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/23/1/93.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law1995 Mar 01; 23
AB  - Previous articles have addressed the ethical and legal issues involved when private psychiatrists perform forensic evaluations on criminal defendants before the defendants have access to counsel; but there have been few studies addressing evaluations requested through public facilities and by clinicians other than psychiatrists. The authors present the results of a detailed study of defendants admitted for evaluations of competency to proceed to a forensic inpatient unit in one state, as well as data from a national survey of state forensic facilities. The studies were designed to measure the incidence of unrepresented defendants in a population referred for competency evaluation, as well as to examine the reasons for such occurrences. The data reveal that court-ordered evaluations of unrepresented defendants are rare, but continue to exist.