Jails = The New Mental Hospitals.
Much can vary on the state. There are some states that have no such thing as a "not guilty by reason of insanity" at all. In others, it can be very difficult to use -- in Texas, for example, I think that there must be actual, demonstrable physical damage to the brain.
If someone is found not guilty by reason of insanity for a serious crime, there is a good chance that he may end up in a mental institution for far longer than if he he had just been found guilty. In some states, even if they do recover, they cannot be released without a ruling by a judge who is not going to be very quick to grant because the judge definitely isn't going to want people blaming him if the person later commits another serious crime. Something that might have resulted in a ten or twenty year imprisonment could easily become life imprisonment.
Another possibility in some places is that if someone is unable to aid in their defense because of insanity, the trial may be postponed until they are better. In the meantime, they will be confined to a mental institution. Most will probably never be released.
As near as I can tell, you probably wouldn't want an insanity defense unless the alternative if convicted was execution or life imprisonment.
Sweetleaf
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Joined: 6 Jan 2011
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Location: Somewhere in Colorado
Do you have any source that says those mental illnesses would not effect how responsible one is for a crime 99.9% of the time or is that just a figure you came up with? Also as was mentioned a lot of the crimes are not violent offenses more like things people do out of desperation like steal a sandwich from the store, or self medicate with drugs and are unlucky enough to get caught with an illegal substance and things like that....mental illness interferes with functioning, not functioning well can contribute to ending up homeless and desperate and then of course sleeping in parks and this and that is illegal in a lot of places so I imagine there are plenty of offenses related to that.
Point is people who are not malicious criminals and need mental health treatment are being treated like malicious criminals, it is a major problem in this country regardless of how many people choose to ignore it. Also though Anxiety and Depression can for sure interfere with rational thinking, not so sure about ADHD or Anti-Social PD as I just don't know as much about those.
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