Applied Criminal Psychology: A Guide to Forensic Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition

first time, and we feel his anguish when his clemency petitions on behalf of Vince Gilmer are twice denied. I reached out to Dr. Benjamin Gilmer and he generously agreed to an interview. We talked for about two hours on a Saturday morning over a virtual videoconferencing platform. He told me that his book had four aspects. It was a “deeply personal memoir,” a medical mystery about a murder, a story about our “shared cognitive fallibility,” and, “most importantly, it’s a book about social justice.” He reflected on the idea that society often fails to recognize that the brain can fail and, when it fails in certain ways, it can define how we’re perceived for life. The Other Dr. Gilmer is engaging and compelling. The central themes are important to both forensic psychiatry and correctional psychiatry. First, the text challenges us to overcome our biases. Dr. Vince Gilmer was labeled a malingerer early in his incarceration. This view of him colored the treatment he received in prison when he had behavioral outbursts or simply requested common medications like SSRIs. Too often, the approach was punitive rather than therapeutic. I want to be clear that I did not review nor am I criticizing his forensic mental health evaluation. It is apparent, however, that the perception that Dr. Vince Gilmer was a malingerer, championed by a police detective, colored the treatment he received until Dr. Benjamin Gilmer began to advocate on his behalf. One of the heroes of the story is the late Dr. Colin Angliker, a noted correctional psychiatrist, who took Dr. Vince Gilmer’s concerns seriously and arranged for the appropriate genetic testing. The second thing a reader should know is that Dr. Benjamin Gilmer offered a recommendation for forensic mental health evaluations. He noted that cancer treatment is often guided by multidisciplinary tumor boards. He marveled that a decision to sentence a person to prison for life could be made with only one mental health evaluator. He recommends that a team of experts evaluate defendants. This suggestion is certainly a thought-provoking idea and interesting comparison. Third, the book makes a compelling case for compassion in the criminal justice system. Whether or not one believes that Dr. Vince Gilmer was appropriately tried and convicted nearly two decades ago, he is now a man with a debilitating neuropsychiatric disease who is suffering in a correctional environment where he cannot access the care that would be available in the community. I found Dr. Benjamin Gilmer’s words of gratitude and tribute to Dr. Angliker particularly powerful: “Thank you for listening with open ears and seeing with childlike eyes while tirelessly serving incarcerated populations for over forty years. The compassion you shared for your patients never wavered from your first patient to your last: Vince. Your example of truth-telling has changed me forever” (p 285). Every forensic psychiatrist should aspire to no less.