Criminal Commitment and Insanity During Thesis

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This new reformulation of the insanity defense, a kind of a fusion of the earlier M'Naghten and Durham tests, was intended to be a less constrictive version of the right-wrong and irresistible impulse tests. Today, "most states in the union allow this 'right-wrong' test and some states also allow defendants to argue that that they understood their behavior was criminal but were unable to control it. This is sometimes called the irresistible impulse defense" (Martin 1998).

Insanity defenses are controversial amongst the public, just like M'Naghten's acquittal. Yet despite the perception the defense is misused, "less than one percent of defendants plead insanity and, of them, only a quarter win acquittals" (Martin 1998). The majority of defendants acquitted by reason of insanity suffer from schizophrenia or some other mental illness (Martin 1998). To be criminally committed to a state mental institution is not a 'gift.' In almost all cases, a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity means being committed to a mental institution until the defendant deemed no longer a danger to the community. "For some, that could be akin to a life sentence. M'Naghten, for instance, died after 20 years in a mental asylum" and a criminal commitment can be longer than if the defendant had been found sane and guilty of the crime (Martin 1998). Other political controversies rage around the defense as it involves public policy and economics: it is alleged that state budgets have more to do with how people are treated -- it may be more expensive to incarcerate individuals in need of treatment in a mental facility, for example, and drugs rather than counseling are cheaper and easier to administrate.

Individuals may also be involuntarily incarcerated until they are deemed competent to stand trial -- for example, until a schizophrenic accused of a crime is medically stabilized.

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Civil commitment is a kind of preventative treatment, whereby a mentally ill person can be incarcerated within a mental hospital involuntarily if deemed a danger to him or herself or others. This method of detention, however, has been criticized as unfair to the mentally ill, as only 3% of all crimes in the U.S. are committed by mentally ill individuals, and within such confinements, the persons rarely receive the treatment that they need to recover (Legal issues, 2009, University of Hawaii).

The involuntarily committed have rights, and although these vary by state they usually include the right to be examined by a doctor within a certain length of time, to be released when they no longer pose a danger to themselves or society, and to be told why they are being detained. If they are compelled to take medication because they are deemed a danger to themselves or others, they must be told what the medication is that they are taking. They also have a right to counsel and to refuse treatment if not a danger to themselves or others (Your rights under involuntary commitment, 1997, Advocacy, Inc.).

In reviewing these various aspects of the insanity defense, it becomes clear why the public is so often confused by the defense. Even legal professionals find it difficult to determine what constitutes a defendant's state of mind at a particular time. To define what any person, particularly a mentally unbalanced person is thinking continues to challenge legal scholars and the court system. However, doing away with the insanity defense, because of the injustices this would lead to would be, by any definition of the word, insane.

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