20.27.8 Status of detention in a psychiatric institution

Where a client is detained in a closed psychiatric institution, careful investigation of the situation is required. In most cases, it is likely that S23(2) will not apply for one of several reasons:

• the client is not 'imprisoned', as the institution is a hospital not a correctional centre
• the client was not convicted of an offence because he or she was found to be unfit to plead to the offence
• the client's detention in the psychiatric institution is a result of a medical condition and has no 'connection' with offences for which they had previously been convicted and imprisoned.