Either the brain is a deterministic physical object or it isn’t. If it is, then we are quite simply not metaphysically responsible for our actions. If it isn’t, then you still might find room for metaphysical responsibility in the indeterminacy of our brain states. Even still, it seems like unless you can trace responsibility to some sort of metaphysical origin – i.e., a soul – you are going to run into the fact that you can’t locate the entities responsible for their actions inside the brain, since, even in an indeterminate situation, neural processing is a distributed, global process.

It’s time we confront the uncomfortable fact that society’s views of crime and punishment are, at the very best, simplistic, and, at the very worst, based on a myth. Until then, it seems like everyone is quite forgiving of the mentally ill up until the point where they do something that’s actually insane – i.e., kill people.

Vengeance is an unhealthy act (for a person, or a society): deterrence is more rational.

If people are seen as escaping by way of psychiatric technicalities, this makes the threat less effective, and reduces the social benefit of punishment as deterrence.