“Our current system incarcerates people like Iowa's Mr. Becker who had no culpability for their actions. It keeps sane people involuntarily committed, and gives potentially violent mentally ill individuals the right to go off violence-preventing medications. That's not justice, it's mayhem” (Jaffe A19).
Jaffe, D.J. "The Trouble with the Insanity Defense." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition,
255.70 (2010): A19-A-1. ProQuest. Web. November 21, 201.
This could be used in my paper in paragraph explaining how it’s morally and physically wrong to throw the mentally ill in jail for extended period time, opposed to limiting their sentence and sending his/her to a psychiatric institution. Although I don’t particularly agree with what this author says, it’s always good to look at why people might feel the insanity defense ultimately hurts the mentally ill. The author thinks that because people are so caught up on how criminals abuse this defense solely to limit jail time, the actual mentally ill, like the man this author describes, has to suffer in a jail cell with little psychiatric help for a long period of time. Overall this quote is a good basis for the troubles with the current American court system in response to the insanity defense.
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