The mentally ill offenders are usually defined as those people who are connected to the system of criminal justice because they have bleached or are suspected to have breached the system through involvement in a crime, and are proved to be mentally incapacitated. Dilemma has always existed on how these people should be treated and how a crime they committed should be classified. Conflicting opinions have consequently being raised in respect to how mentally ill law breakers should be treated. There are conflicting views on whether they should be placed in correction facilities or they should be offered medical assistance and be restrained in therapeutic mental facilities. Legalism and welfarism have been two conflicting ideas in respect to treatment of mentally incapacitated criminal offenders (Mason and Mercer, 2014). This paper seeks to establish whether mentally ill offenders should be classified as just mad people or bad.
Provision for Mentally Disordered Offenders
In most jurisdictions, mentally ill law breakers are not be treated like ordinary sane offenders. Substantial psychological research has proved that mentally incapacitated law offenders are usually not in their right mind may not even realize they have committed a crime. The prosecutor however needs to adequately establish that the offender at the time of committing a particular crime was not of sound mind. There need for the attorney to gain access to the offender’s past mental health records and gain substantial evidence that the offender was actually mad in order to prosecute with reference to a particular code meant for mentally ill people. However, the mentally unstable people may be charged in criminal courts after which the prosecution directs medical care to the offenders while inside the prison (CPS, 2014)…”
