Can we imprison the mentally insane?

Answer 1

No we can't!

Answer 2

I don't think imprison is the right word. A good mental health secure hospital and therapy service is what is needed - care in the community was a bad idea. There will always be a need for these units as often the mentally insane are more of a danger to themselves than other people. I think we have very little insight to this kind of care and they are human beings and deserve the dignity and rights of everyone else and part of that has to be an entitlement of care tailored to their own inabilities. This means that those that are capable or having a good day can be given the opportunity to integrate into day to day life with supervision. There will always be those who cannot cope with real life and they need help too.

Answer 3

We have have done since the 1860s in the UK.

Profile: Broadmoor mental hospital


Broadmoor opened as a mental institution in May 1863, and has since become synonymous with some of Britain's most notorious criminals. As investigations into alleged abuse of female patients continue, BBC News Online profiles the hospital.
When Broadmoor began life in the 1860s the attitude towards mental health was radically different.

Asylums were kept as far away from normal communities as possible - an 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality.

The Broadmoor 'criminal lunatic asylum', as it was called, was opened in 1863 with 95 female patients. A block for male patients followed a year later.

The hospital was built after the passing of the Criminal Lunatics Act of 1860 - also called the Broadmoor Act.

It drew attention to the poor conditions in British asylums such as Bethlehem Hospital, which was known as 'Bedlam'.

It also followed the setting up of the McNaughton Rules, a series of questions which determined whether a person was too insane to be charged with a criminal offence.

The site covered 290 acres (116 hectares) on the edge of the Berkshire moors some 32 miles from London.

The asylum was "intended for the reception, safe custody and treatment of persons who had committed crimes while actually insane or who became insane whilst undergoing sentence of punishment".

Answer 4

No. People who are insane can not be help culpable of a crime in the same way as someone with full command of their faculties. The Insane are held in detention in state custody in a mental institution Rather than a prisoner where they can receive treatment and help. Insanity is an illness and we as a society must look after our ill, obviously with safeguards for the general population, to put them in a mainstream prison would be immoral.

Answer 5

actually the "mentally insane" are not imprisoned.

they are convicted first, then the competent prisoner is incarcerated for a period of time in accordance with his/her sentence.

so no the insane are not incarcerated, only those that are convicted of a crime, notice i used the word convicted, and not guilty, in the modern system of justice guilt is irrelevant the only thing that counts is the conviction. then the maintenance of said conviction at all costs up to and including the truth.

Answer 6

The short answer : lock them up ? - yes.
The long answer : Surely the reason that this government has been closing mental institutions down is so that there will be nowhere to send them when they're finally held to account for their actions.
But perhaps that proves that they're not really insane ?
So then they decided to create vast numbers of new laws for people to break so that they could fill up the regular prisons to the point of overflowing, that way there'd still be nowhere to send them.
Not that I'm cynical or anything.

Answer 7

We do. If you are criminally insane - that is, you commit a crime and are found to have diminished capacity, you can be kept in a locked ward until you are judged to no longer pose a threat to the public. That could be much longer than the jail sentence you would otherwise have received.

Answer 8

Does it make ANY difference to someone who has been wronged whether the person was sane or insane.
Being insane doesnt make it any less of a crime.
Lock the person up regardless. But help them if possible inside.
We dont lock people up for JUST being insane.
If a dog was insane we SHOOT it.

Answer 9

I live near a mental hospital, or it used to be. Somewhere along the line it became home to many violently disturbed criminals.Quite recently two escaped and are still on the run and thats just the ones we know about.

Answer 10

That depends on where you are. But if you ask me, we do it all the time. A person has to be at least a little off in the head to do all the haneous crimes we hear about almost daily in the news. I mean, would a sane person sexually assault a child? Would a sane person kill 25 people? Or even kill just one person without provocation? Would a sane person rape a woman (or man whichever the case may be)?

Answer 11

If we could , the government police and judges would be the first to be imprisoned