THE EDITOR, Sir:

A defendant must be of sufficient intellect to make a proper defence. The defendant must have the intellect to enable him to plead to the indictment, to comprehend the details of evidence and the course of the proceedings, to instruct counsel and challenge jurors.

It is embarrassing to note our mentally challenged are thrown into prisons without any hope of rehabilitation.

I have been informed that in England, if a person is unfit to plea, he/she is taken to a secure hospital for treatment until he is fit to plea.

Proposals and proposals have been planned. Now the plan is to replace Bellevue, the main hospital for the mentally challenged, with a ridiculous concept of community psychiatry.

Many persons cannot cope outside a mental hospital. They are psychotic and cannot be controlled by their families.

It is high time for a psychiatric hospital to be built.

I call on the Minister of Health to address this situation.

I am, etc.,

ELHAM H.M. BOGLE

Attorney-at-law