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.
Lake Alice: punishment inside a children’s psychiatric unit
New Zealand, 1972–1978
362–450 children; many admitted from welfare care without psychiatric diagnosis; shocks for running away or complaining; ~41% of welfare-residence admissions were Māori; complaints to agencies and professional bodies went uninvestigated for decades
Read the recordChelmsford: deep-sleep therapy and the inquiry that followed
Australia (NSW), 1963–1979
Royal Commission (Slattery, 1990)
Read the recordThe Duplessis orphans: children classified as psychiatric patients
Quebec, 1935–1964
A 1960s commission found about one-third of patients held under false diagnoses; labels remained on records; Quebec apologies 1999 and 2001; compensation $10,000 + $1,000 per year confined (2001), $26 million (2006), $15,000 each to 1,270 more (2007); Church declined…
Read the recordBarbacena: the people admitted without a clinical reason
Brazil (Minas Gerais), 1903–1980s; closed 25 May 2026
Investigative record: Arbex, Holocausto Brasileiro (2013) and Tribuna de Minas series (2011); Ratton's 1979 film (Tribuna de Minas, Portuguese; Conselho Federal de Psicologia; closure, May 2026)
Read the recordThe investigation into political psychiatry in Cuba
Cuba, 1960s–1980s
Brown & Lago, The Politics of Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba (1991)
Read the recordSouth Korea’s court challenges guardian-initiated admission
South Korea, 2016
Constitutional Court found the provision unconstitutional; 2017 law revision
Read the recordUtsunomiya: hospital deaths and the push for reform
Japan, 1984–1987
Utsunomiya scandal prompted 1987 Mental Health Act
Read the recordApartheid and the private psychiatric institutions
South Africa, 1970s
WHO 1977 report Apartheid and Mental Health Care; APA 1979 visit
Read the recordNigeria: chaining documented in mental-health and religious facilities
Nigeria and others, 2010s
HRW 2019 and 2020 global shackling reports
Read the recordFifty states, fifty emergency-hold frameworks
All 50 states + D.C., laws as of 2014/2016
Every state has one; durations run from 23 hours to 10 days, 72 hours in 22 states; five states do not guarantee assessment by a qualified mental health professional; neither presentation to a judge nor prompt judicial review is uniformly required; 1.27–1.44 million…
Read the recordDenhof: a fitness examination after discrimination complaints
Michigan (Grand Rapids), 2001–2007
Officer Patricia Denhof, a plaintiff in a sex-discrimination suit, was ordered to an exam after her court testimony; the department psychologist had told the chief that about 75% of officers examined are found unfit; badge and gun confiscated
Read the recordBlake: a fitness examination and a demand for medical records
Maryland (Baltimore County), 2006–2011
Officer William Blake ordered to a fitness exam the day after testifying; county dropped the demand only after suit; DOJ investigating the county's practices
Read the recordA mayoral campaign and a police fitness examination
Illinois (village, 7th Cir.), c. 2003–2004
Officer ordered to an intrusive exam after narrowly losing an election to the incumbent mayor; psychologist advised that refusal should be deemed unfitness for "undermining the quasi-military hierarchical structure"
Read the recordAn unidentified fitness-exam verdict: a lead still to resolve
US federal district (county employee), 2003
Jury found the county unlawfully ordered a psychiatric exam and retaliated for a harassment complaint
Read the recordSpringfield: a police fitness-exam dispute
Oregon (Springfield), 2019–2020
Officer Stone ordered to a psychological exam within a month of a finding against him after he challenged colleagues' misconduct
Read the recordAshland: an examination order and a dismissal
Missouri (Ashland), 2023–2025
Officer Whitener reported the chief breaking the law; told to undergo a psychological exam, then fired without statutory process
Read the recordDuluth: an officer alleges retaliation after confidential reports
Minnesota (Duluth), filed 1 Mar 2026
Lt. Drozdowski, head of the behavioral health unit, reassigned, placed on leave and ordered to an exam after reporting officer misconduct; cleared by internal investigation yet still ordered
Read the recordThe Soma affair and family confinement in Japan
Japan, 1883–1895
Retainer Nishikori Gōsei alleged Lord Sōma Tomotane was wrongfully confined by relatives in an inheritance dispute; the scandal produced the 1900 Mental Patients' Custody Act, which legalized home confinement (私宅監置) for 50 years
Read the recordPolitical psychiatry across the post-Soviet states
Russia, Crimea, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Jun 2012–Apr 2017
Named cases: Ilmi Umerov (Crimea); Natalia Ulasik, Zinaida Mukhortova, Alexander Bondarenko, Lyudmila Khromina (Kazakhstan); Mikhail Kosenko, Maxim Panfilov, Stanislav Klykh and nine others (Russia); Jamshid Karimov, Elena Urlaeva (Uzbekistan)
Read the recordIran: psychiatric transfers reported after protest
Iran, 2016–2024
Kianoush Sanjari chained to a bed two weeks at Aminabad; Hengameh Shahidi sent to Aminabad instead of a medical hospital; a student transferred 16 Nov 2022 without notice to family or lawyer; Saman Yasin hospitalized 23 Jul 2023, two days after his prison audio message…
Read the recordVasile Paraschiv’s resistance and psychiatric confinement
Romania, 1968–1989
Worker Vasile Paraschiv quit the Party publicly in 1968, wrote to the Central Committee in 1971 and tried to found a free trade union; confined to psychiatric hospitals (1978 onward) and forcibly injected with neuroleptics without psychiatric symptoms; psychiatrist Ion…
Read the recordMazorra: political prisoners’ accounts and the Cuban record
Cuba, 1963–1980s
Brown & Lago documented 27–31 dissidents (sources differ) diagnosed with conditions such as "apathy toward socialism"; nurse Heriberto Mederos named by ten victims
Read the recordApartheid psychiatry: segregation, confinement, and publication limits
South Africa, 1970s–1980s
WHO report Apartheid and Mental Health Care (MNH/77.5, 1977); APA Special Committee visit report (Am J Psychiatry 136:1498, Nov 1979) confirming "grossly inferior" care and "needless deaths" among Black patients; RCPsych special committee 1983; Anti-Apartheid Movement…
Read the recordArgentina: psychiatric labels inside political prisons
Argentina, 1976–1983
Rafael and Melo's Locura y suicidio en las cárceles de la dictadura describes prison psychiatry recast as a control instrument: prisoners classified as "inestables", "peligrosos", "paranoicos" or "desequilibrados", which opened the door to isolation and medication…
Read the recordChile: mental-health professionals and dictatorship-era torture
Chile, 1973–1990
Twelve interviews with psychologists trained 1973–1990, a Colegio de Psicólogos ethics file, and a dictatorship-era interview show direct and indirect contributions to interrogations; the Colegio Médico's ethics department (Díaz Paci) characterized medical supervision…
Read the recordUruguay: the Britos collaboration lead
Uruguay, 1973–1985
Dolcey Britos, psychiatrist, documented as working with the military regime in the treatment of political prisoners; later subject of professional sanction
Read the recordTurkey: forensic reports used to keep prisoners confined
Turkey, 2016–2025
Teacher Tuğba Y. reportedly lost her sanity under 24 days of interrogation (Jan 2017), was treated at Bakırköy, then jailed despite medical reports; academic Uysal's psychiatric referral and petitions ignored, ATK report 2024 kept him in prison; İHD counts 1,400+ sick…
Read the recordErwadi: chained residents died in an asylum fire
India (Tamil Nadu), 6 Aug 2001; Supreme Court 2001–2025
28 chained inmates died in the Erwadi fire after NHRC warnings in May and July 2001; Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance (In re Death of 25 Chained Inmates, order 15 Oct 2001), found the 1987 Act "not at all implemented," ordered unchaining and NHRC monitoring…
Read the recordTwenty-two countries—and wide differences in detention rates
22 countries (Europe, Australia, New Zealand), 2008–2017
Median 106.4 per 100,000; Austria highest at 282, Italy lowest at 14.5, Finland 218; England rose from 83.7 (2007–08) to 114.1 (2015–16); no relationship between rates and any characteristic of the legal framework, nor with demographic, economic or service indicators
Read the recordNordic records and the coercion they can miss
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
Of 6,048 admissions reviewed, 3.3% (Finland) and 11.4% (Norway) of formally voluntary admissions were preceded by involuntary referral; published commitment rates therefore underestimate coercion to varying degrees; a 2026 comparative legal analysis finds "considerable…
Read the record