Locked In: Conditions of Carcerality Within Psychiatric Treatment Centers and their Implications

Abstract

There is little existing sociological research that analyzes how and to what effect psychiatric institutionalization in its entirety operates as a carceral system, and how the practices of these institutions function in a way that systematically strips patients of their autonomy, leading to further harm. The purpose of this study is to fill gaps in sociological research surrounding psychiatric institutionalization by providing detailed qualitative data derived by storytelling via autoethnography and in-depth interviews with persons who have previously been admitted to such psychiatric facilities. Connections drawn between the practices of psychiatric treatment centers and that of the prison system, such as the use of surveillance, confinement and restraints, and stratified level systems show that the psychiatric system instead functions as a carceral system, often to the detriment of patients.