THE Summer Daily Vol. LXXXIII, No. 28-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, June 16, 1973 Ten Cents Eight Pages Involuntary commitment: a threat to mental patients' basic civl rights? By REBECCA WARNER Five weeks ago Karen was a Univer- sity student living with her boyfriend in a local apartment. A week later she was an involuntary patient at Ypsilanti State Hospital, com- mitted by city police after they forced their way into her apartment on a com- plaint from her landlord. - KAREN spent two long weeks in the hospital before campus Legal Aid attor- ney Jonathan Rose could obtain a court order for her release. Karen's experience sounds far-fetched, but the same fate is an imminent , possi- bility for many state residents. Michigan's mental health statute permits temporary diagnostic or detentive hospitalization for up to 120 days before the patient receives a mandatory court hearing. The testimony of two physicians is all that is required for temporary committ- ment. THERE ARE 10,000 involuntary com- mitments in the state each year. But many legal authorities, including state attorney general Frank Kelley, question the constitutionality of temporary hospita- lization before a patient has legally been found to be mentally ill. Challenging the constitutionality of the statute, local attorney Gabriel Kaimowitz has brought the issue for consideration before a three-judge panel appointed by the Sixth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. After a year of what Kaimowitz calls "procrastination" by the panel, the suit is scheduled for a hearing in July. Kaimowitz and Upper Peninsula attor- ney Bill Easton are challenging the sta- tute on behalf of two clients, both of whom have been hospitalized under the tempor- ary commitment clause. "WE'RE ALLEGING that the 14th amendment has been violated," Kaimo- witz says. He claims mental patients' rights to due process and equal protection are denied by attempts to commit them before rulings that they are mentally ill. The suit contests the right of mental institutions to treat patients - especially to administer drugs - before they have received consideration in a court hearing. Kaimowitz also argues that several com- mitment procedures are unconstitutional. If the temporary commitment provision is overturned, Kaimowitz says, involun- tary commitment in the state will grind to a halt. A similar ruling in Wisconsin last year freed "hundreds and thousands of people." "THE POINT IS there's no standard for mental illness in Michigan," Kaimowitz explains. "It's ambiguous and unclear. Most - people are committed because they're senile or because they're a bother to other people, usually their relatives." While commitments today are rarely permanent, Kaimowitz says that patients tend to "stay zombies on the outside" be- cause of drug treatment. A primary rea- son for re-commitment is refusal to take prescribed drugs. Washtenaw County Probate Judge Rod- ney Hutchinson is the man who presides over all local commitment hearings and orders'60 day temporary commitments at the recommendation of doctors and rela- tives. See COMMITMENT, Page 5 EPAanti-smog plan to empty LA. of cars Says private automobie must go k-.The Environmental Protection Ag- ency (EPA) yesterday proposed an anti-smog plan for Los Angeles that could force all cars off the streets there by 1977. The proposal came as the agency approved a clean air plan for New York City involving cutbacks on cruising cabs and downtown park- ing. Also proposed was a freeze on "ithe gasoline supply for northern New Jersey that could result in a 60 per cent reduction in driving in that area. MEANWHILE, STATE REP. Raymond - : 2Smit (K-Ann Arbor) has been called to c T Washington to discuss with Nixon Admin- W n siistration officials the possibility of his 'being namedeadministrator ofwthe EPA. Acting utnder a federal law aimed at significantly cleaning up the air around major cities by 1975, the agency announc- itt. ed its decision on plans submitted by23 states to meet that goal. It filly approved only those for New York and Alabama, but said it expected to approve later this month those for Kansas, Missouri and Louisiana. It either partially or complete- ly rejected all the rest. The complete ban on cars in Los An- --- geles is a possibility, Acting EPA Admin- istrator Fobert Fri said, because the air there is already so bad that even the traf- 9 fice reduction measures may not help it. fcrecinmsrsm nopAnd the EPA proposal that no gas could AP Photo be sold in 1975 if it violated the clean air A merian H nds!law would in effect mean that no gas Middle American H ands?be'aal"ec * would be available. Spectators stretch their arms trying to shake the hand of President Nixon as he walked to his car after dedicating the Everett McKinley Dirksen Research Center and Public Library in Pekin, Ill., yesterday. Shortly before the President's IN ADDITION TO Los Angeles, the EPA arrival in the town square where the ceremony took place, two unidentified persons raised a sign saying, "Impeach Nixon." submitted its own proposals for some of The crowd booed and police escorted the .two away for interrogation by Secret Service agents. See EPA, Page 5