RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Commentary: Coerced Community Mental Health Treatment—An Added Burden on an Overstretched System JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law SP 300 OP 302 VO 34 IS 3 A1 Dike, Charles C. YR 2006 UL http://jaapl.org/content/34/3/300.abstract AB The sudden and massive depopulation of psychiatric institutions that occurred in the 60s and 70s overwhelmed a fragmented and undersourced community mental health system, leading, in part, to the high number of chronically mentally ill individuals currently residing in jails and prisons, a situation that has been described as reinstitutionalization or transinstitutionalization. Any process that forces more people out of jails into mental health treatment in the community without a sound, effective, available, and accessible community mental health system of care is potentially catastrophic.