美国精神卫生法庭的制度构造及其借鉴

Mental health courts: institutional structure and its reference

精神卫生法庭是应对和解决刑事司法领域精神病人再犯和治疗问题的专门法庭,其目的在于为精神病人提供治疗机会,将触法精神病人转移出看守所或监狱。为达成这一目的,精神卫生法庭对适格参加者有着独特的纳入标准,并以非对抗程序取代传统的对抗式刑事诉讼程序,通过灵活、非正式的程序迅速将适格的被告转入到法庭的治疗项目。针对我国二元化强制医疗制度运行中存在的问题,我国有必要借鉴美国精神卫生法庭模式某些做法,在基层法院建立精神卫生法庭,并以此为基础建立统一的强制医疗审查制度。

Mental health courts(MHCs) are criminal courts that aim to solve the recidivism and medical treatment of mentally ill offenders. MHCs are created in an effort to divert offenders with mental illness away from jail and prison, providing mental health treatment to offenders in an attempt to prevent repeated criminal activity. MHCs have unique criteria for eligible participants and have replaced the traditional adversarial criminal procedure with a non-adversarial procedure. As a result, the eligible defendants are quickly transferred to treatment programs through flexible and informal procedures. In view of the problems existing in the operation of the involuntary admission system, it is necessary for our country to learn from experiences of the mental health court in the United States. Mental health courts are therefore suggested to be established in district courts, based on which a unified involuntary admission system shall be introduced.