Where Law and Mental Health Meet
Forensic psychiatry is where the law and mental health meet, but the place is not supposed to be prison, according to Rep. Rich DiPentima. He’s part of a legislative study committee whose job is to figure out how to add a forensic psychiatric wing to New Hampshire Hospital—and fast. The goal is to divert patients from the state prison’s Secure Psychiatric Unit, where they are currently held alongside convicted criminals. “The way it is now at the state prison is not a good situation,” he says.
