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Criminology


            One of America's largest problems today is the situation with the Mentally Ill and their effects on our Criminal Justice system. Ever since the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals, our prisons have become a gathering pool for mentally ill as they are mis-diagnosed or perhaps not diagnosed at all. They become a burden not only on our prison system, but on the economy as well as they often return to the prisons and stay longer. Many law enforcement agencies around the country are beginning to implement programs to counteract what has been happening for the past thirty years.
             Mental illness or insanity is:.
             "1. Persistent mental disorder or derangement. No longer used .
             scientifically. .
             2. Law. Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court .
             to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility."" (Webster 1996).
             The McNaughton Rule which is used in approximately half of the states to define insanity is as follows:.
             1. The defendant was suffering from a defect of reason, from a disease of the mind.
             2. As a result, the defendant did not know' the nature and quality of the act he was doing.
             3. An inquiry has been carried out to determine whether the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong' (Ogloff, Roberts & Roesch, 1993).
             The Durham Test simply states that the accused is not ciriminally responsible if his/her actions were produces by a mental disease or defect. Problems then arose when psychiatrists began using any familiar label as a mental disease or defect' and becoming too lenient. This standard is only used in New Hampshire. .
             The first survey of mental health issues in jails revealed that less than 1% of our nation's inmates were mentally ill. According to a 1999 US department of Justice report, 16% of the nations inmates in 1998 were mentall ill. On average, mental health offenders cost more to manage in jail, stay longer, and recidivate at a higher rate than other inmates.


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