Despite the development of finding the causes and treatments of mental disorders in the modern society, there are numerous crimes caused by mental disorders. Due to this reason, the criminal justice system felt the need to review the criminal trial and treatment for the mentally ill offenders. In general, mentally ill offenders receive reduced or pardoned sentences. Unlike the criminal trial, in the point of therapeutic justice, which is a special criminal judicial system for mentally ill offenders, they offer various treatments in the mental health court and the forensic psychiatric ward.
In the United States, they established a mental health court for mentally ill offenders as one of their criminal justice alternatives. In the most states in the U.S., mentally ill offenders receive reduced criminal punishments in the mental health court while taking treatment programs with their agreement or other different ways rather than the normal criminal justice system. The forensic psychiatric wards in the U.S. have different laws and ways to connect the criminal justice system and mental health system by states, but it usually means medical facilities which are responsible for treating the mentally ill offenders.
There is no official mental health court in the United Kingdom, a mentally ill offender is transferred from criminal justice system to mental health system after the court sentences the treatment order. Therefore, there is no difference between a mentally ill offender and a patient who receives a compulsory hospitalization. However, if the court sentences a restriction on discharging from the hospital and a treatment order simultaneously for the mentally ill offender, he or she has a limitation in discharging by medical experts and other ways.
Unlike the common law, in the case of majority of countries which follow the continental laws, they do not have an independent mental health court, the normal criminal court is in charge of their trial. In Germany, admission to the psychiatric hospital without discharging until treated is possible when the offender’s mental illness was the main cause of his/her offense, and was considered to have a high possibility of committing a crime. There are differences among German’s forensic psychiatric wards by states, they usually facilitate as a national or a specialized ward in private psychiatric hospitals or forensic psychiatric wards which are only responsible for psychiatric treatment in the whole forensic psychiatric hospital.
In Japan, after enacting Medical Treatment and Supervision Act in 2005, they organize a committee with judges and mental health review tribunals, who are psychiatrists and sentence security measures, such as admission and outpatient treatments. Furthermore, Japan is facilitating various medical measures in a ward that is specified in Medical Treatment and Supervision Act in the national psychiatric hospital.
In South Korea, though there is no independent mental health court like the United States’ one, the normal criminal court gives mentally ill offender reduced sentences or forensic psychiatry after psychiatric examination for the cause of criminal behavior. Once the revised Medical Treatment and Custody Act implements in December 2016, it would be a different mental health system than the United States’ mental health court, however, it could act similarly in a way that court can request psychiatric treatments.
In the institute of forensic psychiatry, it gives the forensic psychiatry to mentally disordered people who have committed a crime. There are 1,149 offenders who are confined in 2015, and among them, mentally disordered offenders are 990, which is over 85% of the whole patients. Other than the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, Bugok Psychiatric Hospital takes in charge of a forensic psychiatric ward as a specialized the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, and there are 41 patients in a floor of one ward.
In the South Korea’s forensic psychiatry, it is desirable to specifically regulate in the forensic psychiatry act or enforcement about the protection and limitation of forensic patient’s rights. Also, even though the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry is facilitating a separate confinement according to their patient classification, it is desirable to separately confine offenders in independently specialized units. Moreover, in the case that there has been an error in the patient classification or in need of re-classification, it is generally recommended to correct those errors and periodically screen the offender. In addition, it needs to ensure the human resources of forensic psychiatry facility to the desirable number. Lastly, any forensic psychiatry related facilities should be increase for the released patient’s outpatient treatment after ten years from discharging for free.