MENTALLY ill killers are being condemned to endless incarceration because no one wants to be responsible for freeing them, psychiatric experts said.
Not one capital offender has ever been released from Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre since it first opened its doors in 1972, according to Correctional Services Department figures.
'If someone who is not mentally ill commits a capital crime, he might be out in five years,' said Dr Karam Singer, former head of government psychiatric services.
'But if someone who is mentally ill commits exactly the same crime he could be locked up for decades.' About 60 inmates at Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre are currently held under indefinite hospital orders, according to Dr Henry Yuen Cheung-hang, the head of psychiatric services at the Castle Peak Hospital.
The Mental Health Review Tribunal reviews the patients' cases regularly, and is responsible for deciding when they should be released back into society.
'An unspecified order is nothing scary,' Dr Yuen told a court last week. 'If someone is stable they will be released after what is reasonable.' But Dr Singer said tribunal members were unwilling to release serious criminals for fear they would be blamed if one of them re-offended.
'In theory, the inmate may be fit, and might be all right as far as dangerousness is concerned,' he said.
