The Mad and the Bad
How Indiana sorts people with serious mental illness who are charged with crimes, and what each label costs them.
When someone in a psychotic episode commits a crime, a court has to decide what they are. Mad, or bad. Indiana gives three possible answers. This series borrows the system's own crude sorting so we can take it apart.
The three boxes
Guilty
The person is convicted and sentenced under the ordinary rules. The illness may be raised as a reason for mercy, or it may not come up at all.
Guilty but mentally ill
The court finds the person was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and also guilty. Indiana law says the court "shall sentence the defendant in the same manner as a defendant found guilty of the offense." The one addition is a psychiatric evaluation and treatment in the Department of Correction "as is psychiatrically indicated." Researchers have argued for decades that the label can make juries more comfortable convicting, with no benefit at sentencing.
Not responsible by reason of insanity
The person is found not responsible. In Indiana, they are typically committed to the Isaac Ray Treatment Center at Logansport State Hospital, the state's most secure psychiatric center. There is no set release date. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1983 (Jones v. United States) that people found not guilty by reason of insanity can be held until they prove they are no longer dangerous, even past the maximum sentence for the crime.
A guilty verdict comes with a release date. A finding of insanity can come with none.
What we are investigating
- Are people found guilty but mentally ill sentenced more harshly than people convicted of the same crimes? We are reading every Indiana appellate opinion involving the verdict and comparing sentences to the state's advisory sentences.
- How long are people found not responsible held, and how many are held longer than they could have been sentenced? We have asked the state for the data.
Where the reporting stands
- Indiana appellate opinions involving guilty but mentally ill: collected and being coded.
- Public records requests to the Department of Correction, the Family and Social Services Administration, and the Indiana courts: filed September 2026.
- First findings: coming, once every number has been checked against its source.
What we already know
- No state requires a lighter sentence for a guilty but mentally ill verdict, and the verdict can carry added restrictions (Melville and Naimark, 2002).
- Nationally, the insanity defense is raised in about 1% of felony cases and succeeds in a small share of those (American Criminal Law Review).
- One study found people found not guilty by reason of insanity were confined about twice as long as people convicted of similar charges (American Criminal Law Review).
Help with this investigation
If you or someone you love received either verdict in Indiana, or you have worked inside Logansport or the Department of Correction, we would like to hear from you.
Sources
- Indiana Code 35-36-2-5
- Melville and Naimark, "Punishing the Insane," JAAPL, 2002
- "Not Guilty, Yet Continuously Confined," American Criminal Law Review
- Logansport State Hospital, FSSA
Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery