ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the different ways involuntary detention has been defined and practised with people with intellectual disabilities. It argues that these ways reflect changes both in the way this group has been constituted and also the wider social and policy context in which they live. The chapter addresses the following question: Was institutionalisation of people with intellectual disabilities a form of involuntary detention? It provides a detailed history of institutionalisation. Laws that govern people with intellectual disabilities that prevented marriage and enforced sterilisation were implemented in the United States in the late nineteenth and twentieth century's to reduce their societal threat. The chapter explores the implications of the deinstitutionalisation and issues of the involuntary detention of people with intellectual disabilities. It discusses with people both in Australia and overseas there was considerable interest, anxiety and concern about the issue of involuntary detention and people with intellectual disabilities.
