Talk:United States federal laws governing defendants with mental diseases or defects

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The federal laws on mental illness/defect go way beyond what is presently on Wikipedia. Also, because the federal statutes on these different subject matters (incompetent to stand trial, not guilty only by reason of insanity, etc.) are interconnected, it is good to present them as a unified article. In addition, there are other categories of mentally ill/defective inmates subject to special statutory procedures, besides those listed above.

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• 18 U.S.C. § 4241 - Determination of mental competency to stand trial to undergo postrelease proceedings
• 18 U.S.C. § 4242 - Determination of the existence of insanity at the time of the offense
• 18 U.S.C. § 4243 - Hospitalization of a person found not guilty only by reason of insanity
• 18 U.S.C. § 4244 - Hospitalization of a convicted person suffering from mental disease or defect
• 18 U.S.C. § 4245 - Hospitalization of an imprisoned person suffering from mental disease or defect
• 18 U.S.C. § 4246 - Hospitalization of a person due for release but suffering from mental disease or defect
• 18 U.S.C. § 4247 - General provisions for chapter
• 18 U.S.C. § 4248 - Civil commitment of a sexually dangerous person

Section 4247 pretty much ties the other sections together and provides procedural rules for dealing with all of them. There is plenty of room for expansion with the case law on these statutes (which is voluminous and contains several U.S. Supreme Court decisions, e.g. Sell v. United States, Washington v. Harper, etc.), but even as is the article merits inclusion. Tisane (talk) 09:22, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Another interesting article to look up later

http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/onulr29&section=25 Tisane ^talk/_stalk 03:16, 21 June 2010 (UTC)