Public Records Office / Public Library
The Accountability Ledger
Follow the evidence.
Follow the response.
155 source-linked register entries. Open an entry for every preserved occurrence, the outcome as recorded, source references, and linked corrections.
These entries preserve the research archive’s evidence labels. They have not all been independently reverified in this edition. An allegation, settlement, rejected claim and finding remain different outcomes.
The report that helped change California commitment law
Nov 1966
Before the LPS Act, commitment could be indefinite and carry lasting legal disabilities. A 1966 Assembly study put that system under examination and helped frame the legislation that followed.
Read the recordCalifornia replaces indefinite commitment with time limits
1967–1969
California’s 1967 law replaced indefinite commitment with a sequence of time-limited holds and conservatorship. It became operative in 1969, when amendments also added counsel at certification.
Read the recordA hospital refused to let appointed counsel visit
19 Jul–4 Aug 1969
A San Diego hospital refused appointed counsel access to a patient it said had not requested a lawyer. After a habeas writ issued, she was discharged near the end of her fourteen-day certification.
Read the recordWho explains your rights when the hospital holds you?
26 Jan 1970
The California Supreme Court examined who should explain a detained patient’s rights—and the conflict when that task belongs to the treating facility.
Read the recordThe burglary aimed at Ellsberg’s psychiatric records
3 Sep 1971
The White House Plumbers broke into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office seeking material to discredit him. The record includes a guilty plea and convictions; no psychiatric detention was involved.
Read the recordMartha Mitchell’s account of restraint after a call to the press
Jun 1972
The account: Restrained and injected after phoning UPI's Helen Thomas about Watergate; her account publicly dismissed as drunkenness or delusion
Read the recordThe famous hospital experiment—and the evidence that challenged it
1973
The account: Hospitals cannot distinguish sane from insane; labels stick
Read the recordFourteen days detained, without a hearing
1977–1981
The account: Fourteen-day certification without any hearing violated due process
Read the recordThe burden of proof before a conservatorship
1979
LPS-CONSERVATORSHIP
Read the recordEleanor Riese and the right to refuse medication
1987
The account: Involuntary patients medicated without consent or capacity determination
Read the recordBritney Spears’s testimony about control under conservatorship
3 & 31 Jan 2008; Feb 2008–12 Nov 2021
The account: 23 Jun 2021 testimony: forced lithium, IUD removal refused, work compelled; characterized by her as retaliation for refusing shows
Read the recordKatia Julian’s hold—and the legal barriers to her claims
2017 (events earlier)
The account: No probable cause; detention followed a workplace dispute (officers were investigating an alleged assault on Julian)
Read the recordWhat California’s commitment audit found—and did not examine
28 Jul 2020
Audit of 60 holds and 60 conservatorships
Read the recordRepeated holds in Alameda County: the disability-rights challenge
2020 (filed)
The account: Repeated short-term holds without connection to care, falling mostly on Black residents; county hold rate >3x state average
Read the recordCalifornia expands the meaning of grave disability
2023 (effective 2024–2026)
Statute
Read the recordWhen Soviet psychiatry absorbed political dissent
USSR, c. 1960–1989
Forensic diagnosis (Snezhnevsky's "sluggish schizophrenia," with symptoms such as "reform delusions"), Serbsky Institute evaluations, special psychiatric hospitals; estimated one-third of political prisoners held psychiatrically
Read the recordThe six forensic files Bukovsky sent to the West
USSR, 1971
Dissident smuggles six forensic files to the West; sentenced to 12 years
Read the recordHow a professional association confronted political psychiatry
WPA, Honolulu 1977; Vienna 1983; Athens 1989
Professional-body sanction: Declaration of Hawaii; Soviet society resigns Jan 1983 ahead of expulsion; readmission conditioned on "sincere co-operation"
Read the recordChina’s police psychiatric hospitals and the petitioners’ accounts
China, 1980s–present
Police-run Ankang hospitals (about 20 as of 2011); petitioners, Falun Gong practitioners, and activists confined; since 2010s mostly in ordinary wards with police–hospital cooperation
Read the recordWang Wanxing’s thirteen years in psychiatric confinement
China
Wang Wanxing held 13 years after a Tiananmen protest; on release to Germany, two psychiatrists found no disorder justifying admission
Read the recordA new mental-health law—and reports of confinement afterward
China, 1 May 2013
First national Mental Health Law; independent review provisions; Ankang largely exempt
Read the recordWinterwerp: the evidence required before psychiatric detention
Council of Europe
Winterwerp v. Netherlands sets three conditions for lawful detention of "persons of unsound mind": objective medical expertise, a disorder warranting confinement, and persistence of the disorder
Read the recordBournewood: a patient who did not resist, but could not leave
United Kingdom
HL v. UK (Bournewood): informal detention of a compliant incapacitated patient violated Art. 5
Read the recordDisability rights and the grounds for detention
UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Art. 14; 2015 Committee guidelines treat deprivation of liberty on the basis of impairment as discriminatory
Read the recordPolitical psychiatry in Russia: two cases to verify
Russia
Larisa Arap (2007, Murmansk); Mikhail Kosenko (Bolotnaya case, court-ordered treatment 2013, released 2014)
Read the recordElena Urlaeva: repeated confinement reported during rights work
Uzbekistan
Human-rights monitor Elena Urlaeva repeatedly confined in psychiatric clinics
Read the recordJapan’s path from home confinement to hospital reform
Japan
1900 custody law legalized home confinement (shitaku kanchi); 1984 Utsunomiya Hospital deaths; 1987 Mental Health Act reform
Read the recordAfter reporting assault: psychiatric labels and military discharge
United States (federal)
Personality/adjustment-disorder discharges after sexual-assault reports; 31,000+ personality-disorder discharges FY2001–2010; DoD IG (2016) finds 67% of such discharges of assault reporters lacked required documentation
Read the recordWhen an employer orders a psychiatric examination
United States (federal)
Forced psychiatric fitness-for-duty exams of employees in conflict with managers; 1978 House subcommittee finding of retaliatory use; MSPB surveys 1992–2010
Read the recordAdrian Schoolcraft: recordings, a complaint, and six days in hospital
New York
Emergency admission of a police whistleblower; six-day hold; hospital note found no significant symptoms
Read the record