As presently structured, the insanity defense yields a result that is neither fair to the accused nor consistent with its goals (Chernoff 1972). The present organization of the defense fails to accurately identify mentally ill individuals and provide them with treatment accordingly. We must first recognize the shortcomings of the insanity defense and vehemently reject them in favor of a new paradigm. The alternative is not a good one. As long as we fail to enact change, we are willingly perpetuating a system that ensures individuals are improperly diagnosed, unjustly convicted, and cruelly deprived of care. As a society, “we will be judged on the basis of how we treat our weakest members”(Hathaway 2009). Using that measure, we are failing. We have become more interested in punishing criminals than rehabilitating them. Though the costs of such progress may be great, the consequences of refusing reform are greater. The adoption of a GEI verdict will unify the insanity policy under specific parameters that accurately identify mentally ill individuals. Instituting Centers of Human Development, modeled after Gilligan’s plan, will revolutionize the mental health system by providing care to those who are in desperate need of it. As a society, the time has come to denounce the failings of the criminal justice system “and to assert our autonomy and integrity” as a society committed to the “healing of the mentally and emotionally damaged individuals, rather than contributing toward damaging them further” (Gilligan 2015).
