I don't think private psychiatrists are allowed to visit their clients except

[Maraya1969]

for maybe at visiting time. I think the Sheriff is probably responsible for a lot of this absurdity going on now around Paris Hilton. If she was allowed extra visitors or other special accommodation than I can see how the rest of the prison population would be really pissed and it would make for a bad situation all around.

Also if a person is ill they should be treated by the jail in a competent and respectful manner. I don't think that happens in this country very often. I think there are too many people screaming about locking the "enemy" up and too few concerned about what happens to a person while they are locked up.

I am not saying at all that I disagree with her sentence. I just wanted to point out that 1) I don't think others have the opportunity for private health care in jail and 2) The health care of our prisoners is pretty much dismal, at least here in Florida it is.

And I have heard personal private accounts of HELL here. Like one friend of mine was jailed for outstanding fines on a Friday and did not take her diabetes medicine until she got out on Monday because the jail refused or just ignored her.

I also have another friend who is severely bi-polar. The only drug they approved at the time when he was incarcerated was Lithium which does not work for most patients and did not work for this man. So after 6 weeks in jail he went straight to a mental hospital so they could repair the damage done to him in the jail.

Jail in Florida terrifies me.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. I had a friend who went to Madison for a kidney transplant in 1969.

At one point he had both kidneys removed and was being maintained on dialysis while awaiting the transplant operation, and they let him walk around outside the hospital a little. He got swept up by the cops during an antiwar demonstration & spent the night in the Dane County jail with no kidneys.

[Maraya1969]

4. OMG he is ok now right? I hope.

I didn't know one could live without one's kidneys.

[Jackpine Radical]

12. He died a couple of years later.

And the only way you can live without your kidneys is to have dialysis a couple of times a week.

[Kagemusha]

2. Hey, being accused of manufacturing a fake diagnosis is SERIOUS business.

If that's the judge's view of it and he pursues it, the psychiatrist (and IIRC, psychiatrists are M.D.'s?) could lose his license and wind up being charged with criminal contempt of court or similar things.

[Madspirit]

3. Not. True.

All shrink's views are subjective. If this psychiatrist truly thought she was a danger to herself, no judge can prove otherwise.
Lee

[Kagemusha]

5. The accusation related to, no medical documentation at all, or something?

Because we have either

- Judge says no medical documentation proves that the diagnosis is FAKE and in contempt of a lawfully constituted court of law.
- Judge sends defendant back to jail in direct contradiction to legitimate medical advice by a licensed doctor of psychiatry.

There is a vast chasm between these two possibilities.

[H2O Man]

6. There are more

than two options.

[Kagemusha]

7. More than two options that gets Paris' sentence extended back to 45 days?

That's the judge explicitly saying it's her fault, not the psychiatrist's, which fits with the fake diagnosis line.

Well at this point I don't really care - if that's how the judge wants to play it, he's implicitly slandering the qualifications of the psychiatrist and explicitly blaming Paris for the whole thing. The parties who believed they have been wronged can sue. They can afford lawyers.

[H2O Man]

8. Respectfully disagree.

There would be little doubt that she was having adjustment issues. A doctor could believe that she would benefit from the home arrangements, and the folks running the jail apparently agreed. The judge appears to have concluded that adjustment issues, even when not faked, do not warrent her being sent home. I do not think the judge has "implicitly slandered the qualifications" of the psychiatrist.

[damntexdem]

9. Hey, I know what -- they should send the HIlton's jail cell keys here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2873654

[Kagemusha]

10. See, if that was the case, why punish her by wiping out good behavior time?

That implies that there was, oh, I don't know... bad behavior. Malfeasance. Willful defiance of the judge.

If he'd just sent her back under the same conditions I couldn't say that, but the judge seems to be in a very vengeful and vindictive mood.

[H2O Man]

11. I'm not sure

how his decision regarding "wiping out good behavior time" relates to the implications regarding the psychiatrist's qualifications that you mentioned. Briefly, regarding the opinions of psychiatrists, courts are frequently confronted with differing opinions offered by "expert witnesses," including psychiatrists and psychologists. If the court accepts one, or rejects another, it is not usually considered a statement on their qualifications.

Taking back "good behavior time" would seem to indicate the judge did not believe that the defendant was behaving in such a manner as warrented an award. It is distinct from punishment for bad behavior, which would be additional time.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Heh. I'd have put a lot of competitors out of business

if it worked that way:

"If the court accepts one, or rejects another, it is not usually considered a statement on their qualifications."

[Kagemusha]

14. Well, I can see one reason now that I've read more about it

For some completely unexplained reason, Paris' lawyers told the judge she'd participate in the hearing by phone. The judge blew a fuse and sent deputies to get her, and she only ended up *leaving* her house two hours later (an hour after the deputies arrived, itself an hour after the hearing was supposed to start).

Having said that, the judge definitely is acting like this diagnosis is not on firm medical ground. If it is, well.. it's not the judge's fault if proof of that isn't presented when asked for. But I wonder if we've heard the last of this just the same.