PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dorothy Spektorov McClellan
TI  - The New York State Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980: A Legislative Experiment
DP  - 1989 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 129--151
VI  - 17
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/17/2/129.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/17/2/129.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law1989 Jun 01; 17
AB  - Through a statistical analysis of major changes in postacquittal procedures of the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980 (IDRA 1980), the study reveals the Act’s success in formalizing, regularizing, juridicizing, accelerating, and extending to all acquittees psychiatric examinations and review and release procedures. Although more persons are reviewed and released at postacquittal hearings than in the matched pre-1980 cohort, fewer enter nonsecure facilities at commitment or during first 18 months of hospitalization, and fewer are released at the six-month review. After 18 months more acquittees remain inmates in secure facilities. Interviews with leading figures in the formulation and enactment of IDRA provide retrospective and prospective judgments on insanity defense reform issues.