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Originally Posted by sudden
There should be a "guilty by reason of instanity", sentancing people to care - then prison sentance immediatley after they're declared well. That way, few people would fake insanity, to try to get off in 2-3 years.
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First of all, the number of people who can successfully fake insanity to escape criminal charges is laughable - it's a defense that is successful less than 2% of the time. Generally, it's a desperation defense.
Second, if you take most mentally ill people out of a care environment and put them in prison, you're going to have a mentally ill person again within a pretty short time. Prison officials haven't got the time, resources, or training to deal with the mentally ill.
Third and finally - if the mental illness is what caused them to commit the crime, and the mental illness is cured - why treat them the same way as the criminal who did have the ability to distinguish right from wrong? (Please note I did NOT say they necessarily should be let loose on the community, or should ever be unsupervised.)