The use of force, chemical agents and restraint in a prison psychiatric setting

An attempt is made to delineate some parameters surrounding the use of force within a psychiatric service to a correctional system. Descriptive study in using case material and incident statistics are followed by discussion. Reference is made to some recent articles on ethics in the medical and psychiatric literature. This article is offered in recognition that examining these troublesome issues can be very difficult for the clinicians involved, and not in the expectation that any ready solutions are to be found.