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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2010 8:08:42 GMT
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Post by Synonym on Dec 13, 2010 10:25:41 GMT
There must come a point where mental illness erodes capacity for criminal responsibility, and in those cases punishment would be unjust. I wouldn't like to be the one who has to decide where exactly that point is.
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Post by sadie1263 on Dec 13, 2010 12:10:38 GMT
I do believe the mentally ill need help....and addiction is an illness. But I think this needs to be seriously weighed with the severity of the crime. Just having a "grip on them" for several of them won't be enough. The problem with mental illness is that many of them start feeling better and doing really well.....and stop taking their medication........and then spiral out of control again.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2010 13:09:20 GMT
I'm specially unhappy abut the idea of allowing drug addicted criminals to escape jail. Many are desperate to get into residential rehabilitation, but places are few and far between. Offering this kind of treatment to an offender when the law-abiding are denied it makes me feel decidedly uncomfortable.
Apart from anything else, drug treatment works best when it is entered into voluntarily, and I really don't consider this "hospital or jail" option as free choice.
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Post by sadie1263 on Dec 13, 2010 14:30:27 GMT
Good point Skylark. How many will enter it just to get out of going to jail, also?
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Post by Big Lin on Dec 13, 2010 15:14:32 GMT
In principle it IS right. Genuine mental illness really SHOULD be treated in a psychiatric hospital rather than in prison.
That doesn't mean we have to let them run around without a care in the world. You've obviously got to take the crime into account and also how seriously ill they are.
Even so, it's obviously wrong that mentally ill people should be held in prison where their condition can only get worse rather than in hospitals where there is at least a chance that they can improve.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2010 21:46:48 GMT
Is there any intrinsic reason why treatment can' t take place in prison, though? Why not improve facilities in prison, so everyone can benefit, not just those singled out at the sentencing stage?
Apart from anything else, that might discourage the "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" scenario, as suggested by Sadie.
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