Treatment of Mentally Ill Offenders in the Community

Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor in the second century AD, has often been cited for the following comment on a case of matricide on which he was consulted by a local governor: If you have clearly ascertained that Aelius Priscus is in such a state of insanity that he is permanently out of his mind and so entirely incapable of reasoning, and no suspicion is left that he was simulating insanity when he killed his mother, you need not concern yourself with the question how he should be punished, as his insanity itself is punishment enough. At the same time he should be kept in chains; this need not be done by way of punishment so much as for his own protection and the security of his neighbours. (Spruit, 1998)