[This is the first part of a two-part article about the system of surveillance and social control that has been established in this country with psychiatric involuntary commitment laws at its center, and about a possible campaign to end Kendra’s Law or Assisted Outpatient Treatment in New York State. Part II will be posted shortly. * * * * * Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone Susanne the plans they made put an end to you … “Fire and Rain” James Taylor, 1970 If involuntary outpatient commitment, popularly known as Kendra’s Law, is to be ended in New York when it sunsets or expires in 2015, the reductive stereotypes used to...

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