Parry argues that US state and federal governments incarcerate, deny treatment to, and otherwise deprive hundreds of thousands of Americans with mental disabilities of their fundamental rights based on unreliable and misleading predictions that they are likely to be dangerous in the future. He decries the lack of attention to the situation and proposes ways in which these injustices can be identified and remedied.

Law & Social Inquiry

Individuals with severe mental illness are greatly over-represented in the U.S. criminal justice system, and the need for policymakers to address this growing problem is paramount. In Mental Disability, Violence and Future Dangerousness: Myths Behind the Presumption of Guilt, Parry provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the laws and mental health policies that affect individuals with mental illness. As one of the foremost authorities on mental disability law, Parry provides comprehensive coverage of the relevant laws and social science research, and he offers his characteristically insightful and detailed analysis. This book will surely prove indispensable to legal professionals, mental health practitioners, and policymakers, and it should serve as a blueprint for change.

David DeMatteo, JD, PhD, director, JD/PhD Program in Law & Psychology, associate professor of Psychology & Law, Drexel University

This is an elegant, tightly-reasoned, provocative re-examination of the misleading ways that predictions of future dangerousness and biased ‘expert testimony’ have poisoned the criminal justice system. It exposes the reasons that undermine the fundamental fairness of what our system should be. It is the most important book to tackle these issues in years.

Michael L. Perlin, professor emeritus, New York Law School and author of Tangled Up in Law: The Jurisprudence of Bob Dylan, Fordham Urban Law Journal (2011)

Mental Disability, Violence and Future Dangerousness: Myths Behind the Presumption of Guilt is a passionate and articulate indictment of how America cares for its citizens who have serious mental disorders. John Weston Parry meticulously chronicles the serial debacles produced by decades of fear-driven mental health policy-making. Some will disagree with the boldness of Parry’s remedial proposals, but all will benefit from engaging in the crucial conversations that this important book will unleash.

John Monahan, Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry, University of Virginia

John Parry's new book is an ambitious and successful effort to integrate civil and criminal mental disability law. His review of the cases decided over the last four decades offers a valuable perspective on the case law, and is thoroughly grounded with a sensitivity to the realities of life for individuals who have (or are said to have) mental disabilities.

James W. Ellis, Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law, University of New Mexico