Lucy Gellman Photo
Dr. Howard Zonana, a forensic psychiatrist who works at the intersection of law and medicine, says the single most pressing issue facing the nation and the state today is the overcrowding of mentally ill patients in prisons, hospitals and emergency rooms.
Dr. Zonana, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and a clinical professor of law at the Yale Law School, has been instrumental for the past 40 years in getting both worlds to work together in the field of forensic psychiatry, a field that confronts the most difficult cases, those involving mentally ill defendants.
“Our state is not as bad as others,” he said on the latest edition of WNHH radio’s “Legal Eagle” program. But overall, he said, people who are mentally ill often wind up in jail. “It’s a tough, ongoing problem and it is being looked at nationally.” The state has only one hospital for the mentally ill, whereas it once had three.
Dr. Zonana also discussed competency to stand trial issues, saying the Dr. Lishan Wang murder case (to which he has no personal connection) has presented a variety of issues that may not have been handled appropriately. Dr. Zonana said he believes Dr. Wang is delusional, a factor that did not apply to his being deemed competent to stand trial and represent himself earlier in his case.
Dr. Wang is accused of gunning down Dr. Vanjinder Toor outside his Branford condo in April, 2010. The case has yet to go to trial.
The judicial decision to allow Dr. Wang to represent himself was later reversed and Dr. Wang is now deemed incompetent to stand trial. The case is now before the United States Supreme Court because Dr. Wang is attempting to reverse a Connecticut Supreme Court decision to forcibly medicate him. The forced medication, the state argues, is necessary to restore him to competency so that he might stand trial. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to take his case or not by early January.
Dr. Zonana said on the Legal Eagle program he was not surprised the Wang case had not yet gone to trial because the issues get complicated. He also said some defendants do a better job of representing themselves than do their lawyers, according to a small study.
We also discussed the insanity defense and why that defense doesn’t mean short hospital stays anymore.
Click on or download the above audio file to listen to the program.
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Many of these folks are wandering around NH and more will come. Group Homes and Housing First in connection with social and medical services close by are the answer....the best solution we have but the city and state aren't listening as the tide of poor, addicted, and crazy overwhelm us. We do not have enough docs, nurses, shrinks, social workers here or anywhere else BUT we do have many good schools here teaching these skills. Students can learn on the job if it becomes necessary. New England and CA are better equipped for the onslaught. I feel lucky I moved here and safer. I am considering kevlar however.