When is a defendant or offender considered to be suffering from a mental health disorder?
According to the Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, a defendant or offender is considered to be suffering from some form of mental disease or defect when the individual’s behavior or feelings deviate so substantially from the norm as to indicate disorganized thinking, perception, mood, orientation, and memory. Mental health disease or defect may range from the mildly maladaptive to the profoundly psychotic and may result in unrealistic or aberrant behavior, grossly impaired judgment, inability to control impulses or to care for oneself or meet the demands of daily life, loss of contact with reality, or violence to oneself or others.
