The Journal of Psychiatry & Law/Winter 1982 Admission patterns at South Carolina's state psychiatric hospitals following legislative reform BY STJEPAN MESTROVIC, PH.D. 457 Despite the last revision of South Carolina's mental health law in 1977, multivariate analyses of social, legal, and clinical variables for inpatient hospitalization in 1981 reveal that the state's mental hospitals are still a dumping ground for minority groups and those who are at a disadvantage with regard to the law. Emergency commitments have increased over 300% since passage of the new law, and approximately half of these commitments result in release at the subsequent probate hearing. In recent years, the psychiatric literature has been concerned with the nature and impact of the "new commitment laws." For example, in a review of these laws Shore 1 finds that the emphasis is on patients' civil liberties, alternatives to hospi- tal commitment, and community-based resources. Shore believes that these characteristics of the new statutes go beyond the passage of the Community Mental Health Acts AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am grateful to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and the South Carolina Division of Research and Statisti- cal Services for making these data available. ©1983 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.