ABSTRACT
In the United States, the quality of mental health care is abysmal and morally indefensible. At the community level, millions of individuals lack access to any mental health services, often due to socioeconomic status. Upon arrest, mentally ill individuals often languish in federal and state prisons for months, if not years, because the criminal justice system is alarmingly slow in processing cases. In the United States, it is nearly impossible for low and modest-income people to access effective mental health treatment because the cost of obtaining private mental health care is staggering. The insanity defense serves one primary purpose: to ensure that severely mentally ill individuals have little, if any chance, of obtaining a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
