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.
Brandon Raub’s detention over Facebook posts
Virginia
Temporary detention order over political Facebook posts; circuit judge dismissed petition as lacking factual allegations
Read the recordA physician tried to name escape from slavery a disease
Louisiana, 1851
Flight from slavery framed as disease
Read the recordElizabeth Packard: her husband committed her; a jury found her sane
Illinois, 1860–1867
Committed for religious dissent from her husband's views
Read the recordNellie Bly went inside an asylum to report what she saw
New York, 1887
Minimal evidence sufficed for commitment; abuse inside
Read the recordEzra Pound’s thirteen years at St. Elizabeths
D.C., 1945–1958
Found unfit for treason trial
Read the recordAlaska’s “Siberia bill” scare
Alaska, 1956
Campaign claimed the Act would allow mass psychiatric detention of political enemies
Read the recordKenneth Donaldson: fifteen years confined, then a Supreme Court ruling
Florida, 1957–1975
Held ~15 years without treatment though non-dangerous
Read the recordGoldwater and the psychiatric opinions published without examination
US national, 1964–1973
Candidate declared psychologically unfit by polled psychiatrists
Read the recordThe archival history of “protest psychosis”
Michigan, 1960s–1970s
Schizophrenia disproportionately diagnosed in Black men with civil-rights language in charts
Read the recordAlberta Lessard and the safeguards before commitment
Wisconsin, 1972
Commitment without notice, counsel, or hearing
Read the recordWyatt: a right to treatment for people already confined
Alabama, 1972
No treatment for the committed
Read the recordFederal employees and the retaliatory fitness-exam record
US federal, 1978–2010
Exams ordered after personality conflicts and whistleblowing
Read the recordAddington: how much proof does commitment require?
Texas, 1979
Preponderance standard insufficient
Read the recordVitek: the hearing before a prison-to-hospital transfer
Nebraska, 1980
Transfer without hearing
Read the recordHarper: who reviews forced medication in prison?
Washington, 1990
Medication without judicial hearing
Read the recordFlorida’s involuntary examinations of children
Florida, FY2015/16–FY2020/21
194,354 exams FY15/16; 205,781 FY17/18 incl. 36,078 children; 38,000+ children FY20/21 (+77% in a decade); most child exams initiated at school or by police
Read the recordThe military discharges examined in “Booted”
US military, 2001–2016
Survivors discharged after reporting assault; benefits lost
Read the recordWho faces involuntary commitment? A Massachusetts study
Massachusetts, 2012–2018 cohort
Black patients aOR 1.57 for involuntary admission
Read the recordUnequal detention rates under England’s Mental Health Act
England, 2022/23–2024/25
Black people detained at 228 per 100,000 vs 64 for white people (year to March 2023), 3.5x; 3.8x in 2024/25; CTOs 7x; ~52,500 detentions in 2023/24; those in the most deprived decile 3.7x more likely
Read the recordThe Wessely review asks how mental-health law should change
England, 2018–2025
Detentions rose by over a third 2006–2016; reforms aim to cut detention and disproportionality
Read the recordFranco’s psychiatrist searched for a “red gene”
Spain, 1938–39 and after
Political opposition theorized as psychobiological inferiority; women prisoners of Málaga studied; linked to removal of children
Read the recordCamille Claudel’s thirty years of confinement
France, 1913–1943
Camille Claudel confined 30 years at her family's request despite physicians' notes supporting release
Read the recordItaly’s Law 180 and the end of new asylum admissions
Italy, 1978
Reform model; Trieste
Read the recordAktion T4: the state killing of psychiatric patients
Germany, 1939–41
The limit case of psychiatry as state instrument; not silencing of speakers
Read the recordEast Germany: disputed claims and a contested historical account
East Germany, 1949–89
Süß (1998) found no systematic Soviet-style abuse but individual cases and psychiatrists as informers
Read the recordAlexander Gabyshev and compulsory treatment after protest
Russia (Yakutia), 2019–2021 onward
Shaman Alexander Gabyshev, who marched toward Moscow to "exorcise" Putin, forcibly sent to a dispensary Jan 2021; Yakutsk court ordered compulsory treatment Jul 2021; Yakutia Supreme Court approved transfer 23 Sep 2021; held in Novosibirsk from 25 Sep 2021; still…
Read the recordVictoria Petrova’s prosecution and compulsory treatment
Russia (St Petersburg), May 2022–Dec 2023
Forensic exam found she "could not understand her actions" when posting anti-war videos; lawyer reports she was stripped before male staff, restrained, injected with unknown drugs and could barely speak for days; minimum six months, extendable indefinitely
Read the recordThree Russian political cases involving psychiatric treatment
Russia, 2022–2023
Aleksei Onoshkin (Nizhny Novgorod, anti-war posts, Jun 2022 and Oct 2023); Oleg Nepein (Saratov municipal deputy, Sep–Oct 2023); Kuzmina (Moscow, 4 Aug 2023); Moscow Times counts at least seven cases
Read the recordDurdykuliev: a protest organizer’s reported confinement
Turkmenistan, 2004
Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev held after requesting permission for a demonstration
Read the recordUrlaeva’s early confinement episodes
Uzbekistan, 2001–2017
Human-rights monitor Elena Urlaeva
Read the record