The Insanity Plea Of Criminal Justice

In recent years, correctional facilities have begun to experience an influx of inmates who suffer with mental illness. Per Morgan, et al (2011), ?the United States has three times more individuals with severe mental illnesses in prisons than in psychiatric hospitals.? Most prisons in this country aren?t equipped to properly care for the mentally ill persons who enter the facility. Individuals with mental illness are more likely to be placed in prisons rather than a mental health institution to receive help to deal

Despite the fact that my parents have worked in the criminal justice system for many years, I have never given much thought to the treatment of prisoners. As we learned from the readings, the current state of the United States criminal justice system is imperfect to the point of cruelty to those involved in it. This is truer for individuals with a mental illness. Due to a lack of psychiatric facilities throughout Alabama and overcrowding of those that do exist, many criminal offenders with mental illnesses are sent to prisons instead. State prisons are currently overcrowded, leading to substandard conditions such in almost every aspect.

Jails and prisons are not set up to meet the treatment and accountability needs of the mentally ill (“Mental Health Court”, n.d.). “Inmates with mental illnesses are more likely than other to be held in solitary confinement, and many are raped, commit suicide, or hurt themselves” (Swanson, 2014). Making mental health courts mandatory would better address these needs by offering treatment,

Individuals suffering from mental illnesses tend to fall victim to the criminal justice system due to their uncontrollable actions that result from their mental illness symptoms. Within the United States two to three hundred thousand people in prison suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, severe depression, and bipolar disorder. Sadly, the majority of prisons are deficient in providing the appropriate resources to treat these individuals; people with mental illnesses are too frequently socially mistreated, neglected, and misunderstood within the confines of a prison. Prisons are deficient in correctional staff trained to suit mentally ill inmates, in

The incarceration of those who are mentally ill is on the continual rise. Many states juggle with the decision of placing offenders in Mental Hospital or locating them in State Prisons. Latessa and Holsinger (2011) discuss two major reasons for the increase of those with mental illness within the prison system. First, many states have no longer allow for the insanity plea during criminal trials, thus those who suffer from mental illness are not required to receive mandatory mental treatment. This is due to the discomforting idea that criminal offenders should not be given the same living conditions as those whom are patients of mental wards. Secondly, longer sentences have created a surplus of mentally ill offenders needing treatment. Soderstrom (2007) added that the lack of mental health support systems in

Given the number of incarcerated inmates who suffer from some form of mental illness, there are growing concerns and questions in the medical field about treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. When a person with a mental illness commits a crime or break the law, they are immediately taken to jail or sent off to prison instead of being evaluated and placed in a hospital or other mental health facility. “I have always wondered if the number of mentally ill inmates increased since deinstitutionalization” Since prison main focus is on the crimes inmates are incarcerated; the actual treatment needed for the mentally ill is secondary. Mentally ill prisoners on the surface may appear to be just difficult inmates depending on the

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

Each year defendants claim to be mentally insane so they may receive medical treatment for their illness instead of serving jail or prison time. It is my belief that all mentally ill citizens should have the right to be medically treated. Although, not all of these people should be allowed back into society after they have reached their sanity. Some extreme cases such as the case of John Wayne Gacy who was proven insane should still never be let back onto the public streets. John Wayne Gacy murdered and raped 33 young men from the Chicago area then plead and Gacy was found insane. Thankfully Gacy’s insanity was ignored and he was sentenced to death. Some cases of insanity should be sentenced properly with treatment after being proven insane by a psychiatric team, but extreme cases should still be treated the same as any sane person.

The United States criminal justice system has been continuously increasing incarceration among individuals who suffer from a sever mental illness. As of 2007 individuals with severe mental illness were over twice as likely to be found in prisons than in society (National Commission of Correctional Health Care, 2002, as cited in Litschge &Vaughn, 2009). The offenses that lead to their commitment in a criminal facility, in the majority of cases, derive from symptoms of their mental illness instead of deviant behavior. Our criminal justice system is failing those who would benefit more from the care of a psychiatric rehabilitation facility or psychiatric hospital by placing them in correctional facilities or prisons.

One concern that is raised when deciding if the insanity defense should be abolished is will criminals with mental illness receive the treatment they need in a prison verse not being sentenced to a mental health facility. Indeed they will get treatment in a prison for their mental conditions as they would in a mental facility. The public sometimes falsely overestimate the punishment and rehabilitation in the American prison system. Prisons in America are held to some standards to make sure their prisoners are safe and getting the treatment they need as well as making sure they are in a safe environment. For example, in the Yates case, she was

The ideological concept of an insanity defense, formerly termed “complete madness,” was originally incorporated into the English common-law jurisprudence system in the late thirteenth century of the United Kingdom as an affirmative defense for defendants under the yoke of criminal charges involving a heinous action which could involve the option of termination of a defendant’s life if adjudge guilty of such act (Hill). Through such incorporation of a legal defense, the institution of a new societal grouping known commonly as the “criminally insane” became expounded, as well as, the legal opportunity allowing for self-declaration of being “innocent by reason of mental illness or defect”(or, the insanity defense). Those criminally insane are a subset of the prison population who have been deemed to have committed their crimes under the influence of a mental disease/disorder, or who were not in a condition of intellect during the time of the crime to comprehend the illegality or immorality of their offense (Frontline). Only if the defendant has plead insanity before the court can they be considered a truly criminally insane inmate. There are manifold condemnations sustained by the judicial system ranging from guilty but insane to not guilty by reason of insanity, as well as the legal states of incompetency and diminished capacity. This distinction has become a substance of federal law, but as soon as a defendant is convicted, the treatment of the convicted individual is left

Accurately determining ones mental health is a big issue in the United States when it comes down to convicting individuals of crimes they have committed. “Not guilty by reason of insanity”, an overused vague statement used to defend those of their gruesome actions and lessoning their sentencings all together. The Insanity plea needs to be reexamined due to the fact that it is used to get criminals lesser penalties, if the plea was to be used, that it must be through medical determination rather than a legal statement, and that once those who were claimed to be insane have been helped by proper psychiatric help, that they should face the full penalty to the crime that they had committed.

“Totally deprived of his understanding and memory so as not to know what he [was] doing, no more than an infant, a brute, or a wild beast” (Feigl 1995, 161).” What first started off as “complete madness” had evolved to the “Wild Beast” test after the twentieth century. Feigl had the perception that if a person does not understand what they had committed was wrong, then they have truly lost their humanity in an abyss of illusion. The Insanity Plea acts as a loop hole for defendants to be set free of any charges of the heinous crimes they committed. They should be able to find help and serve their charges at the same time. If states adopted the Guilty, But Mentally Insane verdict defendants and the community would all be in good hands. Defendants will be seeking help while serving their time. The community will find that justice was served.

Insanity can provide accused criminals with a defense that will allow them to escape any prison sentences. Nevertheless it can provide mentally ill defendants with proper treatment in place of prison time. The way in which mentally ill offenders have been tried in the U.S. courts system is an ethical debate between those who believe mentally ill are not culpable and others who believe insanity does not excuse wrong doing. Often mentally ill will receive poor representation and compensation due to the idea that law professionals are not proficient in medicine. Attorneys must refer to medical text like the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), that defines mental disorders as an illness that significantly

Shouldn’t a mentally ill individual who commits a crime get the same treatment that a “healthy” individual gets? That would seem “only fair”. When an individual pleads “not guilty by reason of insanity” he or she is acquitted and institutionalized with the chance of release if he or she is declared “no longer mentally ill.” One article very strongly against the idea of the insanity plea states that “psychiatry has undermined justice in the United States by justifying criminality” (Valentine). The same article states that this has “justified crime.” An interesting argument to be made, one could potentially get an easier sentence, not in prison but in a special hospital and have the potential to be released when deemed “not mentally ill.”