Miranda comes to the hospital: the right to remain silent in civil commitment

One procedural protection that has not generally made the transition from the criminal justice system to involuntary civil commitment is the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. The authors present the results of a study of the implementation of the right to remain silent, which demonstrate that warning patients that anything they say may be used against them in the commitment hearing has little impact on their willingness to talk to staff or to cooperate with treatment. The authors discuss the possible reasons for their findings.