The result is that the defendant stays in jail. The dilemmas do not end there. It is well known that the majority of criminal cases do not go to trial. They are resolved through plea negotiation. The degree to which there is open information sharing may conflict with the defense attorney working to present his client in the most favorable light.
Similar dilemmas are present at trial and post trial.
The very information needed by the criminal justice system at every decision point along the justice continuum is hampered by long standing policies and procedures related to privacy and confidentiality. The criminal justice system and the local and state mental health systems, are not set up to share information. They are set up to protect an individual s constitutional and statutory rights. The adversarial system currently in place is effective in reaching resolution on criminal cases. It is not a very effective system in resolving issues related to mentally ill defendants.