University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA.
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2010;38(3):365-8.
There is a longstanding body of literature that describes how states' civil commitment statutes have been stretched or circumvented to accommodate institutional and systemic needs. The paper by Levitt and colleagues provides yet another example of this phenomenon: Arizona's use of its civil commitment statutes to detain unrestorable, incompetent criminal defendants for whom other provisions have not been developed. This commentary provides a brief overview of other examples of the stretching of commitment laws, providing a broader context for viewing the findings of Levitt and colleagues.
有大量文献描述了各州的民事拘留法规是如何被扩大或规避以适应机构和系统需求的。Levitt 及其同事的论文提供了这一现象的另一个例子：亚利桑那州利用其民事拘留法规拘留无法恢复、无行为能力的刑事被告，而这些被告没有其他规定可以适用。本评论简要概述了扩大拘留法的其他例子，为查看 Levitt 及其同事的研究结果提供了更广泛的背景。
