Individuals who break the law, considered mentally ill and declared legally exempt from punishment are object to what is called security measures. These legal sanctions, in some cases, dispose of the incarceration of this population in specific institutions. To define the condition of exemption from punishment, it's necessary to carry out a psychiatric assessment that defines the pathology and level of danger to others. The association of psychiatric and judiciary discourse, and related institutional practices, conveys to individual e social deterioration and, frequently, to a chronic institutionalization. Analysis was based on the data taken from the medical records of subjects who are under security measures in the Psychiatric Treatment ward of the Presídio da Colméia in Brasília. Discourse analysis and Institutional analysis are methodological tools used for these objectives.
Psychiatric discourse; danger to others; discourse analysis