Browsing by Author "Kaliski, S Z"

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    Does the Insanity Defence lead to an Abuse of Human Rights?
    (2012) Kaliski, S Z
    Every day convicted murderers, rapists, and other violent offenders are released by the prisons into the community. Most have not even completed their sentences, as they earned remittances for good behaviour. No one seems to worry that statistically many of these former prisoners remain dangerous, and will probably harm others sometime in the future. 1 In fact, there are criminologists who argue persuasively that fewer offenders should be imprisoned, for the good of their families and communities. This may reflect the confusion about what the actual purpose of imprisonment is, ranging from urges for retribution to achieving rehabilitation. Nevertheless, we are satisfied that when an offender ‘has repaid his debt to society’ he is free to re-enter ordinary life, albeit for a while under the sometimes wavering, watchful supervision of a parole officer.
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    Forensic telepsychiatry : a possible solution for South Africa?
    (2012) Mars, M; Ramlall, S; Kaliski, S Z
    Objective: South Africa has a shortage of facilities and psychiatrists to assess adjudicative competence of prisoners awaiting assessment under sections 77 to 79 of the Criminal Procedures Act of 1977. Various solutions have been proposed by the Department of Health. The recent linking of a Magistrate’s court and a prison by videoconferencing offers the opportunity to implement a forensic telepsychiatry service. The literature on forensic telepsychiatry for assessment of adjudicative competence was reviewed. Method: The electronic databases, PubMed, Scopus, Cinahl and Google Scholar were searched for papers on forensic telepsychiatry. The inclusion criterion was papers reporting the use of videoconferencing for assessment of adjudicative competence or for assessment for referral out of the judicial system, by psychiatrists or psychologists. Results: 411 papers were found of which 13, published between 1997 and 2008 were relevant. The use of videoconferencing for forensic psychiatric assessment was reported from four countries. The courts in those jurisdictions have accepted the use of videoconferencing for assessment and no successful appeals have been mounted on the basis of the use of videoconferencing for assessment. User satisfaction has not been reported for assessing adjudicative competence. Forensic telepsychiatry has been found to be cost effective, improve access to scarce specialist skills and reduce transport of prisoners under guard to hospitals or psychiatrists to prisons. Conclusion: There is nothing in the literature to suggest that a forensic telepsychiatry service is not feasible in South Africa and a pilot project is being planned.
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