[단독] ‘Mental illness treatment and custody’ receives a star… mostly neglected [심층기획-망상, 가족을 삼키다]

(2 times) Offender returned without treatment

“The original verdict of 3 years and 6 months in prison is overturned and the defendant is sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.”

Court room 801 of Suwon High Court on the 17th. Kang Tae-jin (pseudonym)’s father, Kang Yong-seok (60s, pseudonym), who was sitting in the audience with his wife Jeong Myeong-ju (60s, pseudonym), looked saddened by the judge’s sentence.

‘I didn’t ask for a commutation… .’

Mr. Yongseok watched the prosecutor for a long time with bloodshot eyes. Without saying a word, Myeongju took out a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes. Ordinary parents would be happy about their son’s sentence being commuted, but they were not.

Mr. Yong-seok and Mr. Myeong-ju submitted a petition to the second trial court and the prosecutor requesting treatment and custody prior to the sentencing on this day.

“I heard that there is a system called therapeutic custody. My son is not receiving any drug treatment in prison. “I sincerely ask you to request medical treatment so that I can receive treatment at least compulsorily during my sentence.” However, ‘therapeutic custody’ was not even mentioned throughout the trial.

Taejin was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2014, but did not take medication well. This is because taking medicine makes you lethargic and makes you sleepy. Even though Myeong-ju reluctantly took the medicine when Myeong-ju urged her to do so, she stopped taking the medicine again when her auditory hallucination symptoms improved slightly. This was repeated for 10 years. In the early morning of May 15, about a month after quitting the medication, Taejin suddenly stabbed Myeongju with a knife. That day, Myeong-ju almost lost her life to a knife wielded by her son, and Tae-jin was indicted on charges of attempted murder of a parricide.

Myeong-ju is always more worried about her son in prison than about her own injury. Taejin’s condition was getting worse every time I visited him. He said strange things and said he was hallucinating. I wasn’t taking any medication at all. “The color of the medicine has changed,” or “My mom is trying to kill me with medicine.”

Treatment is desperately needed, but even in cases where a child harms his or her parents, as in the case of Taejin, a diagnosis of mental illness is made, courts and prosecutors do not readily accept treatment and custody.

On the 28th, Segye Ilbo analyzed 823 rulings (all excluding viewing restrictions) on charges of parricide and attempted parricide over the past 10 years (2014 to 2023). Among these, we examined 211 cases of parricide and attempted parricide (based on the first trial) that were recognized as being related to mental illness, and found that only 59.7% (126 cases) were requested for treatment and custody up to a higher trial. If there are no conditions for treatment within the family, there is a need for the state to protect and treat the person, but in reality, this is not the case.

Treatment custody is a measure in which the court orders protection and treatment upon request by the prosecutor when a criminal act is committed due to a mental or physical disorder, addiction to drugs such as narcotics or alcohol, or a psychosexual disorder. Those subject to treatment will receive drug treatment and psychological treatment at the National Justice Hospital, not in prison. In cases of mental illness such as delusions, medical staff can manage and supervise inmates and force them to take medication, and have the legal authority to take additional measures if they do not comply.

On the other hand, in prison, there is no way to do anything even if the inmate does not take medicine. This is because prison guards, not doctors, manage them. Inmates whose symptoms worsen may have conflicts with other inmates.

Mr. Taejin’s delusions are also worsening and causing conflict with other inmates. One time, Yong-seok and Myeong-ju went to the prison to request a visit, but they could not meet Tae-jin because he was being disciplined in solitary confinement. Since his incarceration, he has received at least two disciplinary actions confirmed by his family.

Additionally, the importation of some mental illness drugs into prisons is prohibited, which limits treatment. Myeong-ju and Yong-seok, in the presence of the police, tried to give their son prescriptions for the medication he was taking at a psychiatric hospital, but some psychotropic drugs were not allowed to be brought in.

Experts say that for criminals with severe mental illness who require constant drug treatment, treatment custody is necessary. Cha Seung-min, a psychiatry specialist who worked at the National Justice Hospital, said, “If a person returns to prison without treatment, their psychotic symptoms are bound to be the same as before.”

“We desperately need treatment and custody” An earnest appeal to the judiciary This is a handwritten letter that Myeong-ju Jeong (60s, pseudonym) sent to the court ahead of the sentencing on the 7th. Provided by Kang Yong-seok (60s, pseudonym)

◆“Requesting treatment and custody is frankly annoying.”

The biggest reason why treatment is not given is because the prosecutor does not request it. Under the current law, the court can request the prosecutor to request medical treatment, but it cannot order it ex officio without the prosecutor’s request.

There is no clear reason why the prosecutor does not request treatment and custody. Regarding the reason for not requesting medical treatment and custody in Mr. Taejin’s case, the second trial prosecutor said, “It is said that the victim requested medical treatment and custody, but they are all (the defendant’s) family anyway,” and “We did not request treatment and custody because it is difficult to consider them as victims of a typical crime.” He said. It was accepted that the parents had requested favorable measures for the defendant. Prosecutor Lee added, “We decided that he could receive treatment in the future and that there was no need for him to receive treatment and custody.”

Public opinion is not favorable to the recognition of mental and physical weakness in mentally ill patients, which is also cited as a reason why prosecutors are passive in requesting treatment and custody. A trial prosecutor from a district prosecutor’s office in the metropolitan area confessed, “Honestly, it’s annoying,” and added, “Requests for treatment and custody must go through an investigation before filing, but this process takes a long time and there are cases where mental and physical weakness are abused, so there are cases where it is rejected.” Due to the perception that the National Legal Hospital is better than prison, treatment and detention orders may appear as if the defendant is being treated for mental illness. There is no reason for the prosecutor to request medical treatment despite the burden.

The family struggles to receive treatment and custody even at a higher level, but judgment rarely changes.

As a result of examining 146 cases for which there was an appeal out of 211 first-trial cases of parricide or attempted parricide that were recognized as being related to mental illness over the past 10 years, there were 93 cases in which treatment and custody were not requested in the first trial but were requested in the second trial. There are 14 cases, which is 15.1% in terms of percentage. There was no case in which a claim was made in the 3rd trial, the legal trial court.

Lee Jong-jin, an attorney at Trinity Law Firm who represented a defendant who killed his mother due to delusions while not taking schizophrenia medication, said, “Even though the first trial court acknowledged that he had a history of mental illness and requested a request for treatment and custody, the prosecutor did not accept it.” “He said. Attorney Lee argued for a treatment and custody order in the second trial, but it was also not accepted.

Attorney Lee said, “This case itself arose out of a dispute with the parents who demanded treatment, and not requesting treatment and custody would mean wasting the opportunity to have compulsory treatment through a court order,” adding, “If you receive treatment and custody, not only the perpetrator but also others will be harmed. “The safety of prisoners and their families after release can be protected, but it is questionable whether the state is performing its normal function to prevent crime,” he said.

Even when looking at not only parricide and attempted parricide but also all crimes committed by mentally ill people, the prosecution is passive in requesting treatment and custody. According to the ‘2023 Prosecution Yearbook’, the number of requests for treatment and custody by the prosecution was only 65 in 2020, 78 in 2021, and 93 in 2022. According to the police statistical yearbook, the total number of criminals with ‘mental disorders’ over the past 10 years has been around 5,000 to 9,000 per year.

◆Lack of facilities to support treatment

In addition to prosecutors viewing treatment and custody orders for patients with severe mental illness negatively, there is another problem.

Park Joo-young, head of the Eastern Branch of the Busan District Court, cited ‘lack of space’ as the reason why medical treatment is not actively requested. He said, “Criminal justice workers’ lack of understanding or differing opinions on treatment and custody and treatment justice are also a big factor,” but “the reason why prosecutors do not request treatment and custody unless it is a case with serious consequences, and why the court does not order treatment and custody is because of the national “The absolute reason is that there is a shortage of positions at the Legal Hospital,” he said.

Accordingly, there are voices calling for conditions to be created in prisons to treat mental illness.

The director of a mental health welfare center in Seoul said, “In order to provide quality treatment that helps patients recover, there must be an active expansion of manpower in treatment centers.” “It is necessary to improve access to medical care even in prisons, such as through linkage transfer,” he said.

People Power Party lawmaker Jang Dong-hyuk, a member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, said, “There is a need for active treatment for prison inmates with mental illness, but it is true that there is no consensus because of the perception that they are people who have committed crimes.” He said, “There is a need to inspect the current state of treatment of mentally ill patients in hospitals and prisons and make efforts to improve the system.”

What Myeong-ju needs right now is treatment within the prison. Since the prosecutor’s request for medical treatment does not constitute grounds for appeal, it is difficult to expect any further judgment from the court.

After the second trial, time has stopped for the Myeongju family. Myeongju hangs her son’s clothes, which she misses, on her doorstep and smells them. Talking to myself has also increased recently.

“Get treatment and come out. Please get better and come back. When you get better, let’s live happily. “If only I could die for you, I would be fine. What should I do? What should I do?”

“I think I could die at the hands of a child. “But what can I do?”

This is a feeling that parents of people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia have had at least once. In fact, more than 20 tragedies occur every year across the country in which parents die or almost die at the hands of their mentally ill children. Even if a mentally ill person who committed parricide was severely punished, nothing changed.

Segye Ilbo spent eight months tracking down what made him a criminal who killed his parents. We looked at 823 rulings on parricide and attempted parricide over the past 10 years, and analyzed the scale, characteristics, and causes of cases related to mental illness. We heard the voices of 84 people, including people with mental illness, their families, and medical and legal experts. Their story is told over five episodes.

Reporters Jun-ho Yoon, Na-hyeon Kim, and Hee-yeon Jo

[ⓒ 세계일보 & Segye.com, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]