Oregon's civil commitment, statute: Stone's "thank-you theory" - a judicial survey.

The object of this paper is to examine judicial attitudes toward the Oregon civil commitment law as measured by a questionnaire recently circulated to all Oregon Circuit Court judges having jurisdiction for civil commitment of individuals under Oregon law. The questionnaire had two main purposes. The first was to look at certain aspects of the current statute and get the judges' perspectives on its strengths and weaknesses. The second purpose was to get the judges' opinions on a theory formulated by Alan Stone which he calls the "thank you theory" of civil commitment. l To accomplish this second goal each judge was asked to review Stone's theory in detail and then to give his views on strengths and weaknesses embodied in this potential approach to civil commitment. Finally, each was asked to state whether he would support a new statute based on this approach. This paper will of necessity focus on certain areas of civil commitment which are unique to the Oregon area, as certain of the procedures adopted here do not exist, to our knowledge, in other states. The particular problems in Oregon highlight often-repeated themes which exist with most of the newer civil commitment statutes around the country. The Oregon civil commitment statute was modified in the 1973-74 legislature. Shore2.3 summarized the history of this change, along with some of the consequences of the change in statutes. In addition he compared the commitment process in various western states. Using Treffert's criteria4 of a model commitment statute, Oregon achieved a rating of 15 points which was in the middle of the state-by-state rating. Briefly, the Oregon statute allows for five day emergency hospitalization and treatment under either a police or a physician "hold." During this emergency hospitalization the local county mental health office conducts a pre-commitment investigation by interviewing the allegedly mentally ill person, the petitioner, and others on the ward where the person is