Presents results of a survey of admissions and the average daily census of individuals institutionalized in the US in 1978 as (1) incompetent to stand trial, (2) not guilty by reason of insanity, (3) mentally disordered sex offenders, and (4) transfers from prisons to mental health facilities. The forensic director in each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the federal system, was interviewed by telephone concerning the placement options available for the 4 categories of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) and the availability of statewide information on the numbers of such persons admitted to state facilities and residing there on any given day in 1978. Results show that most jurisdictions did not keep simple descriptive statistics on the admissions or census of MDOs. Estimates suggested that there were approximately 20,000 persons admitted to state and federal institutions as MDOs. Findings are compared with those of P. L. Scheidemandel and C. K. Kanno (1969), who conducted a survey of treatment programs for the mentally ill offender.

Citation
Sharon Kantorowski Davis et al., Mentally Disordered Offenders: A National Survey of Patients and Facilities, 6 Law & Human Behavior 31–38 (1982).