Let me introduce myself

Hi. I didn't intend to start a blog. I just wanted to post a comment on someone else's blog and one thing led to another. But I'm here now so I will give this a go. This will be sort of an online journal for me since I have been doing a pretty poor job of keeping my paper one.

So about me: I am a non-traditional psychology and criminal justice student by night and an administrative assistant for a local law enforcement agency by day. I eventually plan to get a Master's in criminal justice then off to law school with me. Once I complete my education I want to work in the criminal courts system in a capacity that allows me to NOT get swallowed up in politics and bureaucratic red tape. Even though I am too old and too far along in school to be saying this, I really don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

I am a bit of a crime junkie and have been since I read Say You Love Satan at the wee age of 15. I like some of the cheesier 'novels' such as those written about BTK within one week of his capture as well as more 'legitimate' stuff (I reread The Stranger Beside Me once every two years it seems). I am also a fervent fan of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, The People's Court, and The First 48.

I hope to post my thoughts about what is happening in crime TV, books, and movies as well as real events in the news.

This all started because a comment was made about Andrea Yates getting a new trial. The comment implied that her initial insanity defense was a load of hooey which I totally disagree with. I believe shows like my beloved Law & Order have done a fine job of making the public believe insanity defenses are common, and without brilliant prosecutors like Jack McCoy, a get-out-of-jail-free card for vicious murderers. Not quite. According to Wikipedia (and several of my textbooks which I don't have handy), "The insanity plea is used in the U.S Criminal Justice System in less than 1% of all criminal cases, and only one fourth of those defendants are found "not guilty by reason of insanity". 60-70% of all insanity pleas are not in murder cases." On occasion a person who committed a crime and was deemed insane gets released from the hospital and commits a new offense. This leads people to think all mentally ill persons should be locked up forever. Yet people who are indeed more likely to reoffend are released from jails and prisons everyday. I just have a major problem when someone with a documented history of mental illness is still criminalized because the public's emotions are running high. Of course she should just walk out of prison, but is she going to get proper treatment for her illness (and the subsequent trauma she will likely face once rational thought returns and she realizes the implications of what she has done) in prison? Or do people just not care as long as she isn't out?