Sitting between the psychiatric and criminal justice systems, and yet fully located in neither, forensic psychiatric units are complex spaces. Both a therapeutic landscape and a carceral space, forensic services must try to balance the demands of therapy and security, or recovery and risk, within the confines of a strictly controlled institutional space. This article draws on qualitative material collected in a large forensic psychiatric unit in the UK, comprising 20 staff interviews and 20 photo production interviews with patients. We use John Law’s ‘modes of ordering’ to explore how the materials, relations and spaces are mobilised in everyday processes of living and working on the unit. We identify two ‘modes of ordering’: ‘keeping safe’, which we argue tends towards empty, stultified and static spaces; and ‘keep progressing’ which instead requires filling, enriching and ingraining spaces. We discuss ways in which tensions between these modes of ordering are resolved in the unit, noting a spatial hierarchy which prioritises ‘keeping safe’, thus limiting the institutional capacity for engendering progress and change. The empirical material is discussed in relation to the institutional and carceral geography literatures with a particular focus on mobilities.

法医精神病学科坐在精神病学和刑事司法系统之间，但又完全不在这两个地方，是复杂的空间。法医部门必须在严格控制的机构空间范围内，既要在治疗领域又要在监狱空间中寻求平衡治疗和安全需求，恢复和风险的要求。本文借鉴了在英国一家大型法医精神病学部门收集的定性资料，其中包括对20名员工的采访以及对患者的20张照片制作的采访。我们使用约翰·劳（John Law）的“订购模式”来探讨如何在单位的生活和工作的日常过程中调动材料，关系和空间。我们确定了两种“排序模式”：“保持安全”，我们倾向于趋向于空的，程式化的和静态的空间；而“保持进步”则需要填补，丰富和根深蒂固的空间。我们讨论了在单位中解决这些订购模式之间的紧张关系的方式，并指出了优先考虑“保持安全”的空间等级，从而限制了促进进步和变革的机构能力。经验性材料是与机构和癌变地理文献相关的，特别是关于流动性的。