Coercive measures on prison inmates with mental disorders

Background The EUNOMIA study has assessed the clinical practice and the legal regulations of the use of coercive measures during psychiatric admission. An add-on EUNOMIA study is the COCEHOSPE Project. Objectives: a) to study in depth the use of coercive measures on psychiatric patients at Penitentiary Centers (two of the three Penitentiary Psychiatric Hospitals in our country and three ordinary prisons); b) to know – in relationship with our laws –, the possible bioethics and legal implications, in order to develop a basic proposal suitable to be the origin for a later legal regulation about use of coercive measures, within the penitentiary system, on psychiatric patients, with respectfulness to essential rights of the person.