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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.

Puerto Rico’s court-ordered mental-health procedures

Puerto Rico, Ley 408-2000 (as amended)

Any citizen over 18 with "reasonable basis" may petition the Court of First Instance (form OAT 1248/1964) for a temporary detention order of up to 24 hours for team evaluation, then court-ordered involuntary admission for up to 15 days, renewable; the petition must…

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Belarus: punitive psychiatric treatment documented after 2020

Belarus, 2020–2025

Viasna counts at least 33 (Apr 2025) and 37 (Nov–Dec 2025) people sentenced to compulsory treatment among 7,840 political sentences; at least 21–25 still confined; one documented case: Matvei Bialyai, who struck the Government House doors with a hammer on 3 Mar 2021…

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Mukhortova: a lawyer’s complaints and repeated confinement

Kazakhstan (Balkhash), 2009–2013

Lawyer Zinaida Mukhortova and three colleagues complained to the President in Sept 2009 that MP Nigmatullin had interfered in a civil case; a criminal case followed; a July 2010 forensic exam diagnosed delusional disorder; she was confined over eight months from Jan…

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When persistent complaints become a diagnostic category

Psychiatric nosology, 1879–present

The category fell out of use because, in the words of the standard account, it had been misused to stigmatize people pursuing valid grievances; Lester, Wilson, Griffin and Mullen revived attention in 2004 ("Unusually persistent complainants," BJPsych 184:352) and 2006…

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Leonard Roy Frank: commitment before California’s LPS Act

San Francisco, 1962–63

Leonard Roy Frank, 29, committed on a "paranoid schizophrenia" diagnosis and given about 50 insulin comas and 35 electroshocks; he later co-founded NAPA (Dec 1973) and edited The History of Shock Treatment

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The survivor press that kept its own record

San Francisco / Berkeley, 1972–1986

Madness Network News founded 1972 by two women inmates of Agnews State Hospital, published to 1986; NAPA (Frank and Wade Hudson) organized protests that for a time stopped ECT in San Francisco; the movement began with the Insane Liberation Front (Portland, 1970)

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Berkeley’s vote to ban electroshock—and the legal challenge

Berkeley, Nov 1982

Coalition to Stop Electroshock (Ted Chabasinski, d. 6 Nov 2025) qualified Measure T; passed by a wide margin; the APA spent $15,000 against it; Chabasinski's argument was that California's ECT consent law was so laxly enforced a ban was needed

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What the Justice Department found in Alameda County

Alameda County, report 22 Apr 2021

US DOJ found constitutional and federal-law violations at John George Psychiatric Hospital and Santa Rita Jail, including placement of people with serious mental illness in restrictive housing, non-therapeutic suicide-watch conditions, and failure to provide…

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Kern County: isolation on suicide watch

Kern County, 2010s

Hundreds placed each year in single cells 24 hours a day with no treatment and a yoga mat; a county official quoted calling it "punishment and humiliation"; one hanging inside a watch cell

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Santa Barbara’s jail safety cells

Santa Barbara County

Disability Rights California found inmates with mental illness held in windowless safety cells "three days at a time on a repeated basis," staff confirming placement was "not temporary"; the county called an outlier statewide

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San Luis Obispo: a federal agreement on jail conditions

San Luis Obispo County, 2018–2021

Before disciplining a person with serious mental illness, staff must determine whether the conduct stemmed from illness; force and restraints "prohibited as punishment or retaliation"

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Psychiatric care in California immigration detention

California immigration detention facilities, 2025

Detainees receiving mental health care disciplined at a higher rate at some facilities; mental-health reviews not conducted before discipline or segregation; a facility failed to report

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Suffolk County: a suicide-watch verdict

Suffolk County, New York (E.D.N.Y.)

Statistical analysis showed people in disciplinary housing were more likely to be placed and kept on suicide watch after clinicians ordered release; the plaintiff remained longer than 96% of comparable inmates

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Bias: probable cause ended the challenge to two holds

San Leandro / Alameda County, 14 and 23 May 2003; 9th Cir. 28 Nov 2007

A pro se litigant with a pending matter before a judge was placed on two § 5150 holds nine days apart by the same officer; the second application recorded her statement that she would kill herself if the judge ruled against her; she was examined and released the same…

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Nguyen: the testimony behind a contested psychiatric hold

San Diego; S.D. Cal. 3:11-cv-02594; 9th Cir. No. 15-56996, 20 Mar 2017

After a bench trial the court found officers had probable cause under § 5150, used reasonable force, and — on the retaliation count — accepted the officers' testimony that the plaintiff's speech was not a factor in the decision to detain

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Nieves: probable cause and a retaliation claim

US Supreme Court, Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. (2019)

Probable cause generally defeats a First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claim, with a narrow exception where similarly situated people not engaged in the speech are not arrested

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Dahlia: a police whistleblower’s First Amendment claim

Burbank; 9th Cir. en banc 2013

Detective reported colleagues' abuse of suspects, was threatened, then placed on leave; en banc court overruled Huppert v. City of Pittsburg and held such disclosures can be citizen speech

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Who handles patients’ rights complaints in California?

Worldwide register by region (Batch 2)

Each county has a Patients' Rights Advocate (W&I § 5500 ff.) with "no direct or indirect clinical" role, who investigates complaints in LPS facilities and reports Denial of Rights and ECT data upward to the California Office of Patients' Rights (COPR), operated under…

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What California’s detention forms collect

Worldwide register by region (Batch 2)

DHCS's Involuntary Detentions Data Report series is built from three quarterly county forms: DHCS 1009 (conservatorships established), DHCS 1010 (admissions by § 5150 category, later retitled "Involuntary Treatment"), and a third form covering denial-of-rights reports.…

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The reporting boundary: what the state’s data cannot show

Worldwide register by region (Batch 2)

Facilities report by county of admission, not county of origin; counties with joint agreements (Sutter/Yuba) are merged. Consistent counting of admissions. Cross-county holds (a common pattern when a person is taken from one jurisdiction to another facility) cannot be…

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Arizona patients report retaliation after grievances

Arizona State Hospital, IOC annual report 2020

The statutory Independent Oversight Committee (A.R.S.-mandated) names as its "primary concern" that patients "have consistently voiced concerns over retaliation from some staff after filing grievances"; the IOC requested video of one retaliation incident and noted it…

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The oversight minutes behind Arizona’s retaliation concerns

IOC annual report 2022-23 (1 Nov 2023) and public meeting 19 Oct 2023

"Many patients believe there is a risk of retaliation if they file" grievances; an anonymous letter traced to an active employee alleged fear of retaliation; at the October meeting the chair reported the committee reviewed nursing notes for a grievance case "to see if…

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Arizona’s anti-retaliation legislation: text still to check

2023 session, SB 1444 (State Hospital; administration; oversight)

Legislation addressing ASH administration and oversight; press reports a provision forbidding staff retaliation, which the IOC called "a step in the right direction" needing more

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