New law for mentally impaired criminals

2.00pm

Mentally impaired criminals will be dealt with more appropriately following legislation today.

A major change is that people found not guilty or unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity no longer have to be remanded to a hospital or secure facility.

Instead, a judge can grant bail while the best way of dealing with the person is established.

"Of course, in the normal course of events people who commit a minor offence but do not have a mental impairment would be unlikely to be remanded in custody," Mr Goff said.

"Therefore, mentally ill and intellectually disabled people would have been placed at a disadvantage compared to others charged with similar offences, for no strong reason.

The Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Bill updates and modernises the law relating to mentally impaired people charged with criminal offences.

Justice Minister Phil Goff said it would cover three situations:

* when a defendant was unfit to stand trial due to their mental condition;

* when a defendant was acquitted on the grounds of insanity; and

* when a convicted offender's mental condition meant they would be better detained in a psychiatric hospital or care facility than a prison.

"... people with an intellectual disability who appear before the courts will be dealt with in a more appropriate way than is possible under current legislation," Mr Goff said.

"One important change is that under the bill's new procedures, a person cannot be found unfit to stand trial unless the court is first satisfied that there is sufficient evidence of their physical responsibility for the offence with which they are charged.

"This address the risk under the current law that a person can be found unfit to stand trial and placed into secure care even though they have not committed the alleged offence."

The bill also included:

* new rights of appeal on findings of fitness to stand trial, for both the defence and prosecution;

* a judge could accept that a person was not guilty by reason of insanity without a trial, if the prosecution and defence agreed; and

* provision for a court to order a convicted offender receive treatment or care in a hospital or secure facility while also being subject to a prison sentence.

The bill was originally called the Criminal Justice Amendment Bill (No 7) but the name was changed to more appropriately reflect its content.

National MP Lynda Scott said the removal of the provision to remand those found not guilty or unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity to a hospital or secure facility was one of the main reasons her party could not support the bill.

The likely result of that change was that families would have to care for those people.

"We know judges work very hard in this country and do their very best but not all judges have very clear knowledge about mental illness or intellectual disability," Dr Scott said.

That would result in more cases like that of paranoid schizophrenic Paul Ellis.

Ellis bashed his father, Tony Ellis, to death with a baseball bat on October 26, 2001, after being freed from a psychiatric unit by a judge without a full assessment being given on why the man was dangerous.

"... he was released and his father paid the price for that and died," Dr Scott said.

That change was introduced through a supplementary order paper, which meant the select committee which had examined the bill had not considered that clause, nor heard from experts on it.

"(Mr Goff) can not stand up and say there is no risk, he cannot make this sort of substantial change without anybody in the sector having had a chance to have a look at this, so unfortunately we will not be able to support it on those grounds," Dr Scott said.

New Zealand First and ACT also opposed the bill but the Greens and United Future joined the Government in supporting it, ensuring its passage by 69-48 votes.

- NZPA