On May 19 The Herald editorialized against changes in the law regarding people found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity, charging they would give the Department of Social and Health Services license to toss mentally ill people into prison with no evaluation and no help with recovery.
That is not at all accurate, and I appreciate the opportunity to explain.
In the last two legislative sessions, I’ve introduced bills that would have created a new category of “guilty and mentally ill” for people charged with a crime. Gov. Chris Gregoire also proposed such a law, and several versions were considered by the Legislature. However, none of these bills passed and there is no “guilty and mentally ill” designation currently available in the judicial system.
Senate Bill 6610, as requested by the governor, did pass. It improves procedures relating to the commitment of persons found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Here is how it works: Previously, defendants in Washington could be found not guilty by reason of insanity, a verdict that resulted in commitment to a state mental hospital for a period that could not exceed the time they would have spent in prison had they been convicted. (The time spent, however, is often much shorter.)
In addition, a person who committed a heinous crime but was subsequently found not guilty by reason of insanity could be released back into society with no criminal record (since they were, in fact, found not guilty). That person could then legally purchase firearms and would not be subject to strict post-release supervision. That is just too much liability and too much potential risk to the general public.
Part of the new law states that if DSHS determines a person to be an unreasonable safety risk, he or she may be placed in a Department of Corrections facility as long as proper mental health treatment is provided. One of the best illustrations of the need for this language is the case of Isaac Zamora. On Sept. 2, 2008, Zamora went on a shooting rampage, murdering six people near Mount Vernon. He pleaded guilty to four of the murders, but not guilty by reason of insanity to the other two. How can someone in the middle of a killing spree be sane during some of the murders and insane during others?
Nevertheless, the tactic landed Zamora in Western State Hospital instead of prison, walled off inside the most secure wing under 24-hour guard by two SWAT team members from the Department of Corrections and a DSHS representative at a cost of $1.2 million per year. If someone is so dangerous that they require SWAT guards, is a mental health hospital really an appropriate place for them? In fact, Lakewood Police had the hospital forensic unit under 24-hour surveillance by uniformed officers until DOC took over, which shows how dangerous city police believe him to be, especially in light of another patient’s escape from the same secure facility just months prior.
The top three crimes in Washington for which individuals were found not guilty by reason of insanity are murder, arson and assault. In both Western and Eastern State Hospital, 26 and 28 percent of the population, respectively, are committed in connection with murder or attempted-murder charges.
The new law does not mean people will be denied treatment for mental illness and simply dumped into a prison cell. They will continue their treatment in prison, but will also be in a location that’s much safer for the public at large rather than a state psychiatric hospital.
An independent public safety review panel was also created by the law, and its sole task is to review DSHS’s proposals for conditional release, temporary leaves or any movement around facility grounds for those found not guilty by reason of insanity. This language in the law is intended to prevent escapes such as last summer’s highly publicized incident regarding Phillip Arnold Paul, a paranoid schizophrenic who had strangled a 78-year-old woman, who simply walked away from a hospital field trip to the Spokane Fair.
While the goal of providing mentally ill individuals with proper housing, care and treatment is laudable and should remain a high priority, many in Olympia believe that protecting the public from dangerous, unstable individuals should be given equal consideration. SB 6610, which passed unanimously in the Senate and 92-5 in the House of Representatives, has rebalanced the law to give equal consideration to the general public as well as the individual.
State Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, serves on the Human Services &Corrections Committee.
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