Insight Matters
Winter, 2004

Ohio Psychiatric Association Position Statement: House Bill 357

As approved by OPA Council on January 25, 2004

A bill recently introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives (designated House Bill 357) threatens the ability of certain mentally ill defendants to receive just treatment within the criminal justice system. H.B. 357 proposes to eliminate the "not guilty by reason of insanity" (NGRI) defense, thus removing from Ohio law a nearly 1,000-year-old Anglo-American legal principle that it is fundamentally unfair to punish mentally ill defendants who cannot understand the wrongfulness of their conduct.

In place of the NGRI defense, H.B. 357 proposes to substitute a "guilty but insane" (GBI) plea that, unlike the NGRI plea, does not represent an affirmative defense against criminal charges. Defendants found guilty but insane may be involuntarily committed to a state psychiatric hospital for an indeterminate amount of time before their prison term. Time spent in the hospital (which could add up to years) will not count towards time served.

The OPA believes H.B 357 to be regressive law that can only serve to undermine the progressive changes made in our state's treatment of the mentally ill defendant. For example, across Ohio, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, mental health boards and agencies, professionals, and consumer advocacy groups have joined with the Ohio Supreme Court to form the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Mentally Ill in the Courts. This group, led by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, has encouraged every Ohio county to develop special "mental health courts," law enforcement education initiatives, and other tools for adjudicating the mentally ill offender in an individualized, case-by-case manner. H.B. 357 will move Ohio jurisprudence in the opposite direction, depriving judges and juries of a critical tool required for the fair administration of justice by abolishing the insanity defense.

The NGRI defense appears to be applied judiciously and justly, and the mental health institutions and professionals held responsible for post-acquittal treatment and movement seem to be doing their jobs skillfully and responsibly. The NGRI defense is not a problem that needs to be fixed.

The OPA, in reaching its position on HB 357, has considered the opinions of leading professional and advocacy groups and organizations. The American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards, National Mental Health Association's Commission on the Insanity Defense, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill have taken positions in favor of the NGRI defense and have recommended against a GBI type plea.

Perhaps Justice Stratton best summarized the issue when, discussing the need for mental health courts she wrote,

"In the 1800's, the greatest challenge to the mental health and criminal justice systems was to get the mentally ill out of jails and prisons and into appropriate treatment. Still today, we face the same problem."

The OPA recommends against the passage of H.B. 357.

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