When I was quite ill with my pychosis, I got quite delusional because of my hallucinations and I started carrying a knife around with me because I believed it was my mission to kill people and stuff like that
I never actually attacked anybody (thankgod!)
I was sectioned by the police and they found the knife
but I was never actually charged with carrying a weapon
What I was wondering was can you actually be charged or are you usually charged with a crime if you are obviouslly mentally ill?
Like could I have been charged with a crime for carrying a knife even though I was obviously ill?
(I'm just wondering if I just happen to be lucky to get away with not being charged or if it wouldn't have happened anyway)
I was watching the news today and a woman is being charged with murder after being sectioned under the mental health act.
Which I didn't think they did.
"In the driest whitest stretch of pains infinate desert, I lost my sanity, and found this rose"
With your situation, I recon they didnt charge you because, a) there was nobody else involved or hurt and b) it would be clear in court you were too ill to make clear rational judgements and therefore a sentence would probably amount to nothing or you would be found not guilty on grounds of insanity or whatever they call it.
I believe they can still charge you if you commit a crime, and you can still be found guilty, but the sentence is the difference. If you are ill, you would be sent to a psychiatric prison or, if you were well, you may be sent to a normal prison to serve the rest of your sentence.
I would imagine you could have murder knocked down to manslaughter if you were too ill to know what you were doing, and I think within sentencing the jury would take into account your mental state in determining if you were remorseful or not.
Im not 100% sure, the legal system can be very complicated, and judgement asides, there are lots of technical hitches.
Personally I think with the case of this lady being on section, I couldnt say if she was guilty or not, nobody out of the courtroom can, but the authorities looking after her should have been far more vigilant.
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Well, they can charge you with crimes but for certain crimes they can't, I think.
For some crimes they need to prove you had the mens rea, which is basically the intent.
In something like murder, the mens rea is simply an intention to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm. If you were psychotic for example and thought you were killing the devil, you could still be charged but the defence of insanity would be used and you would most likely be convicted of manslaughter. Instead of going to prison, you would be placed on a home office section and sent to a forensic psychiatric hospital. Somewhere like Broadmoor, no doubt.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
With your situation, I recon they didnt charge you because, a) there was nobody else involved or hurt and b) it would be clear in court you were too ill to make clear rational judgements and therefore a sentence would probably amount to nothing or you would be found not guilty on grounds of insanity or whatever they call it.
I was sectioned by the police once and they discovered I had a knife (for pretty much the same reason - really delusional) and it was exactly those reasons above that they didn't charge me (they told me at a later stage) and I was then admitted to hospital.
I think if it's something as serious as muder they can't just not charge you as then you could get away with anything (murder lol) just because you were already sectioned? Once charged it would be decided in court.
The thing is as well that a lot of people don't realise is that in a many ways it's a lot worse to be sent to a psychiatric prison as there is no definate end to the sentence, you stay until they think you're better enough. And, therefore, that could be indefinately.
Life breaks most of us in the end, but afterwards some of us are strong in the broken places
~ Ernest Hemingway
i have known people who i believe even went to prison for having a knife with them, to use against themselves. i have also known people who have been sent to prison for setting fire to themselves. many people in ordinary prisons have mental illnesses. i agree with han, being sent to a psychiatric prison is quite possibly worse than a normal one, especially if it's high-security, as the people there are very severely ill and can be dangerous to one another.
Yep. It's not a psychiatric prison as such, many ordinary psychiatric hospitals have forensic wards where the "prisoners" are detained. When I was sectioned I was on a ward with people on home office sections.
They are sentenced indefinately, they can only be released once they are no longer deemed a threat to society, or unwell, I guess.
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
I once took a knife into school because my Voices were commanding me to Kill. A teacher found it on me and said that she would have to tell the headmistress and contact the police. She went away and came back ten minutes later. She said that because of the "circumstances" she wouldn't contact the police. She called my psychiatrist and made an emergency appointment for me. I don't know what she did with the knife, but I never saw it again. I am supposing that's because the headmistress told her that I'm mentally ill, I think.
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
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They wouldn't just let you off - look at Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and Fred West (I'm assuming I'm right) - but they're all in psych prisons.
Being detained in a psych prison is much MUCH worse than a 'normal' one because there is no definate sentence time - you just go in, and they decide when to let you leave. I'm pretty certain the suicide/SH rate is massively high in them aswell, which shows the lack of care/support that is available for mentally ill criminals.
On a side note - I was charged with theft when I was also sectioned. I just got let off with a caution as obviously I'd never done anything of the sort before.
