TREATMENT OF MENTALLY ILL OFFENDERS

This research paper discusses and compares similarities and

differences in the handling (punishment and/or treatment) of criminal defendants with mental disorders (mentally disordered offenders or MDOs) internationally, particularly in the United States, Great Britain and Scandinavia.

In dealing with MDOs, all societies have faced the necessity of protecting society from their criminal actions while also attempting to cure/rehabilitate them. In general, custodial isolation in the interests of public safety has been given priority over mental health treatment, largely due to public fear of, and indifference toward, MDOs and gross disparities between their therapeutic needs and available resources and facilities. Due to their differing cultural values, legal systems and mental health policies, the United States, Great Britain and the Scandinavian nations have pursued different approaches to MDOs; however, the criminal justice systems of all three areas are moving in the direction of diverting MDOs as much as possible away from traditional modes of punishment and toward more effective treatment for their disorders.

Winston Churchill said that "the mood and temper of the public with respect to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country" (Hibbert, 1963, p. 131). No class of criminals has posed more of a social dilemma than those law breakers who

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for psychological damage unless they can prove they suffered physical damage as well. Criminalization of MDO treatment. According to Stahl & West, the cumulative effect of the above developments, together with greatly heightened public fears of rising rates of violent crime and massive cuts in funding of public mental health services at all levels of government in the 1980s and 1990s was "a large influx of mentally ill offenders" onto the street (p. 1). Kirwin said that since the 1970s "a massive number of mentally ill offenders have . . . flooded the correctional system" (p. 257). In 1998 the United States had in jail or prison 1.8 million persons, up from 500,000 in the early 1970s (Irwin et al., 2000, Summer, p. 135). It has the highest rate of incarceration of any developed nation. Canada with about as many people as California has only about 25 percent as many incarcerated (Irwin, p. 140). Europe with a population in 1998 of 370 million incarcerated 300,000 whereas the United States with a population of 274 million incarcerated more than a million (Irwin et al., p. 136). Of America's 1.8 million inmates, approximately 1.2 million were nonviolent offenders (p. 135). Stahl & West estimated that in 1998 about 730,000 MDOs
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Stahl West, Hafemeister Petrila, M'Naghten Rule, MDOs Streeter, Health Acts, Steadman Morrissey, Middle Ages, Scandinavia Germany, According Mitka, Latin America, mental health, mentally ill, mentally disordered, health services, mental hospitals, 1986 march, criminal justice, insanity defense, jails prisons, health care, community mental health, research policy annals, mental health research, public mental health, health research policy,
Approximate Word count = 4573
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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