Not criminally responsible

I haven't updated this for a long time, but Allison suggested, so here it is.

Rob Ford and Don Cherry suggested that the man who killed he police officer when he was psychotic was playing at being mentally ill and should not have been found not criminally responsible.

Though I think the man should be treated and be certified until he is once again clear from his psychosis, and ensure that he is continuing to be treated, the idea that someone would be able to fake illness is kind of far fetched. There are people who do try to fake illness but I highly doubt in this case that this man was doing it-he had been in hospital after all. I am not sure what kind of psychosis he had, but he was examined by doctors who found him ill.

I guess the issue is whether he knew what he was doing was wrong-and also did he really understand the extent of it?

Working with people who have an illness similar to this guy, I would say that untreated mental illness should not be criminalized. Treatment itself is no fun time-being kept in a facility with no ability to choose treatment, and I would suspect, fairly significant restrictions on day to day activities is not a walk in the park. Mental health icu's are not places where people have 'fun'.

I don't think people have any really clear understanding of either what mental illness looks like, or the treatment itself. The media portrayals are terribly inaccurate. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Girl Interrupted do not explain mental illness or effective treatments.

No one chooses to have mental illness, at least anyone I have come in contact with, nor have I heard anyone who works in mental illness health care suggest that it would be a good way to get out of jail. Sure, I would bet there are some anti-social types out there who might try it, but really you would be trading in one set of restrictions in jail, for another set in a secure mental health facility. Neither would be at all appealing to anyone looking at them.

At least when you get out of jail, you are done. I would think that if you had killed someone as a result of your illness, you would be on a community treatment order for the rest of your life-meaning that you have to be under psychiatric treatment forever-taking medication, seeing your mental health team etc. The drugs are not a walk in the park. And treatment for mental illness is difficult-medication is part, but so is healthy lifestyle, understanding the illness, etc etc. And treatments still are not totally effective, a person could be doing everything 'right' and still get ill. Much like someone could do everything right for their heart condition, and still have a heart attack.

I know this isn't an exact analogy, but if someone had been driving a car, had a heart attack and lost consciousness and killed that police officer, would we find the driver guilty?