When people with emotional or mental disabilities are accused of committing a crime, should they be tried for the crime outside of the usual court system? Should a special court system be established for such people?
When people with emotional or mental disabilities are accused of committing a crime, should they be tried for the crime outside of the usual court system? Should a special court be established for such people? If so, how do you see this court differing from the criminal court we have now? Do you think people with extreme cases of mental or emotional disability should even be tried at all? How about milder cases? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of having a separate court designed for people who are determined to be mentally or emotionally disturbed?
Thanks for your comments!
kaleen bittner (9:00)
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21 comments:
I don't think a special court should be held for anyone. Our court systems are good enough to make a fair judgement on what happened. The crime would go into affect as well, but everyone should be treated equally. Especially going to court which means you have committed some kind of crime. John 9:00
I think that there should be a different court system for mentaly or emotionaly disabled people. The current court system would not really work for people with disabilities. i think that it depends on how disabled the person really is. and weather or not they knew what they were doing. if it was something like a murder, then they should be tried as a normal person but if it was something smaller, he beat someone up or stol something, then the court should be different.some advantages are it would help people with disabilities to be tried fairly, it isn't their fault that they were born that way. some disavantages would be a lot more grey areas and different ideas of how they should be tried.
Mike Handal (9:00)
I think that there are certain cases in which you should take the trial of a person into consideration, but i do not think that someone should get a whole different court system just because of saying they were temporarily insane or pleading insanity and getting off for murdering someone. There are many cases where you hear the verdict was not guilty due to temporary insanity or someone saying they were affected by a medicine. To be honest i think everyone can go "temporarily insane" but it is all a matter of how you act upon that situation. Just because someone gets enraged doesnt mean that you can go an kill someone and just say "well i was temporarily insane, i couldnt control my actions." To me that is just ridiculous. There should be certain trials that should be taken into consideration. For example, if someone is known and has been proven to have a chemical inbalance and has proven to doctors that this has been a problem before the case, that is different. A few years back a mother locked all of her kids into the car and rolled into a river, killing the kids and then saying someone stole the car and killed them. Later to just be proven that she killed them, and then she came out and said she doesnt remember doing it. Well that just doesnt seem right at all, because instead of going to jail like she should have, they locked her in a insane house for medical attention. That just isnt right, so i think that certain cases should be taken into consideration, but most shouldnt be.
Tom Miller
I’m happy someone is writing about this, because a good friend of mine is in jail for hurting a family member. He sent his dad to the hospital for 2 weeks and made him have stroke. My friend was not allow to stand trail, because he was declared insane at the time of the beating and during the time the trial was suppose to start.
I’m conflicted, because I knowing all of the parties involved, I truly want the best for my friend, but his dad has not been the same since this happened.
I hope that my friend does go into a place for mentally sick people. For a long time, but I hope he never goes to jail for something he did not know he was doing. How can you be punishing for something you did not know you were doing.
So, to answer your question yes I do thing their need to be a special court system for mentally sick people. I don’t want people to take advantage of a good thing for sick people, and rune the whole thing.
From Steve Gratkins (9:00 a.m.)
I do not think that there should be a special court system for the mentally challenged. THe current court system should take into consideration the person's mental state. If someone commited a crime no matter how serious, their mental state should be taken into consideration. If they truly did not know right from wrong and didn't know what they really did was wrong, then they should be equitted. Along with that, they should also be cared for and monitered by a relative or close friend. If the mentally handicaped person is watched by a mentally stable person that is trustworthy to the challenged person, than this could stop any potential wrong doing. That friend or relative could keep the mentally challenged person in line so to speak and help them to understand right from wrong.
Bryan Skaggs
No I do not think there should be a different court system for the mental or emotional disabled. The current court system should be taking into account a persons mental or emotional state.
If we have a different court system for these reasons then there would a lot of people claiming to have mental or emotional problems after the commit a crime. People do that now, and if they get a good lawyer they get away with it.
Many years ago I had a first hand experience with this. My brother-in law was murdered, and the guy who did it got a really good lawyer, lined up every person he could find to say his was in emotionally deres and he did not spend one day in jail. He got 5 years of probation for murdering a person. He went on to life a live with his family. In my book that is not justice. So no way do I want to see every person who commits crime to get a free pass, and that is what a different system would do.
I think the current court system can handle the people that are claiming emotional or mental disabilities. Although there are many people that actually have emotional or mental disabitilies, there are some people that just clain to have a disablity just to get out of serving time for the crime they committed. If we add another court system it is going to increase the need for more judges and courtrooms. The system is slow enough now without adding another system. In extreme conditions of disabilities they show wait until they are fit to stand trial for the crime they committed. This would help stop the people that get off doing a crime and just have to serve a probation.
I think for those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness or disability then yes I think there should be a different court system. For those that are charged for a crime and then plead insanity I think they should be tried as a normal person. I do think they should at least be tried but maybe with a different kind of court.
I dont think that there should be a different court system established for these people. If we set up a system for people that have mental or emotional disabilities then anyone will try to use this as a way of getting milder sentences. I do think that they should be tried, even if they get a milder sentence than what would normally be handed out. If they have an extreme case of mental or emotional disability then maybe that would be a reason to try them differently because they dont alway know that they are doing something wrong. But with milder cases of disabilities they should definetly be tried the same as other people.
While this concept sounds good to me in form, I do not think this would be very applicable. There would be too many gray areas, such as "How disable is he/she?" "How bad is the crime he/she committed?" and many others. For now I suggest the same court system, with perhaps a different approach for the mentally or emotionally disabled. There is no doubt that the numbers of mentally or emotionally disabled people in our society is on the rise, and we need new systems in place to cater to them. But along with this comes another hurdle--who is faking it? Who would be the deciding factor in determining whether the person is mentally or emotionally unstable, and could this determination be challenged in a court of law?
Michael Endris (9:00)
Everyone should be tried in the same court. Not depending upon mental or emotional status. If someone isn't emotionally stable then that should mean they should be getting help. If someone is considered to have a mental problem then it can't be that bad if they have the ablilty to commit a crime. There just shouldnt be a special court. If they ever did create one though it should have the same amount of punishment time, just in a more sutible environment for the criminal.
I do not believe that there should be a special court held for anyone. People with emotional disabilities can be given medication to help deal with their problems. I think our court system is smart enough to know what people with mental disabilities are and are not capable of. There have been many cases where someone has committed a serious crime and blamed it on a mental disorder when really they do not have one. I do not think anyone should be excluded from a normal trial.
Lesley Suding
I don't think that people with certain disabilities should be tried in a different court. Many people use a disability as an excuse for their actions when in fact they know that what they did was wrong. If they really do have a disability or illness and they need help then they should be sentenced accordingly.
I don't think there should be a separate court system. I think that our court systems are fine, and they can determine the outcome even if they do have a different system. Would this mean we would have to figure out a new court system? Would we have to figure out how to punish them? A crime is a crime to me. If you do wrong, no matter what is wrong with you, you should be able to handle the consequences like everybody else. There should be no easy way out. Life doesn't work that way.
Katelyn Watterson 9:00
I don't believe a special court should be set up for people with mental illness because I believe everyone will blame every crime they do on "mental illness" just so they don't have to go to jail. Everyone should be treated equally especially if you have committed a crime.
Justin Stout (1:00)
I don't think there should be a special court for anyone at all. I understand if people are mentally disabled or have any other problems, but if that was the case then why didn't anyone step in for the person and identify that a specific individual has a problem and got treatment or help for the individual until it was to late and damage had already been done. I do understand at time it's hard to control this and we should all be treated equally but in times like this i do have a heart for the people like these and maybe there shouldn't be a separate court for them but should be tested by doctor to declare if there really is a problem with the individual and consider that with the punishment that is going to be given to them. Maybe a lesser charge could be appropriate for this, and after the punishment is served to make sure the individual won't do it again by either in a mental hospital or whatever it may be.
Cesar (9:00)
They don't necessarily have to be tried in a different court system, but they should be tried differently than a mentally sane person. Their cases are different because, often times, they are unaware of what they did or the consequences of their actions and can't control themselves. People with mental and emotional disabilties should be tried because they did commit a crime and can't just be let off after killing or raping someone. If anything, I think there should be a separate prison sustem for people with mental and emotional disabilities because they don;t know how to interact with normal people. Even ones with milder cases need treatment and should be segregated from the general prison population. The advantages of having a separate court/prison system is that more attention would be paid to the specifics of their case and condition, they would receive more proper treatment and a more appropriate punishment could be decided, and whether they are to ever be released from prison or be treated for the rest of their lives could also be decided. The disadvantages of this would be that it would cost more money to establish these prisons and court systems and that many criminals might try to fake an illness to avoid regular courts and prisons. But, these really ill people need to be separated from society, treated for their conditions, and a better job has to be done of doing this.
I don't think people with emotional or mental disabilities should be tried any different than anyone else. If they have a disability maybe they should of been in a home where they were watched and taking care of. Everyone should be tried for what they did. The court system probably has gone through this many of times and know what to do. Nothing should be different, everyones actions should be charged the same.
Jennifer Woodward (12:00)
They should be, but they still should go to jail. I never agree when someone does something and they say that they are ill so they just get counseling and then are back on the street. I think it should be two court systems, one for the people, and for the mentally disabled people. This way you can never have any controversy over trials that go wrong. Some people say they are crazy and really arent crazy and end up getting off in the trial which is just unfair.
Justin Peacock 1:00
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