There are three motives for incarcerating criminals: Punishment, rehabilitation and the protection of society. In my mind the most important is protecting society.

There are a lot of reasons people commit murder, but most of the time it is for a fairly specific reason. These people can get very long prison sentences even though they don’t pose much of a threat to the general public.

There are some people that kill because of mental problems. These people can plead insanity, get sent to a mental hospital and be released when they are cured.

I agree that some people are insane and can’t be held responsible for their actions, and that they need special treatment. I am concerned that many of these people are released back into society before they should be in order to cut costs and for psychiatrists to pad their resumes with “curing” people.

For these people, the line between right and wrong may be blurred or voices may dictate their actions. These people pose the greatest threat to the public, but are the most likely to be released. Many of these people may be Prince Charming on medication, but releasing them back into society without supervision provides no guarantee that they will enjoy continued success.

An excellent example of this is the recent developments in the case of John Hinckley Jr. In 1981, Hinckley shot President Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a D.C. policeman in order to impress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley has been confined to a D.C. area hospital since 1982. His doctors sent a letter to a federal judge on March 31 requesting that Hinckley be given a “conditional release.”

A conditional release would allow Hinckley up to 52 unsupervised day trips from the hospital per year. The trips would be in the custody of his parents and would require him to stay within 50 miles of the hospital. It is the second of three steps leading to an unconditional release.

Hinckley is already allowed supervised trips from the hospital and has taken several visits to nearby malls, restaurants and bookstores.

In the report sent to the judge, doctors say that Hinckley “exhibits no evidence of psychiatric decompensation,” has “sufficiently recovered from his mental illness,” and the trips will “bolster his support system and otherwise contribute to his treatment.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office is opposing the trips.

A federal judge turned down a 1997 request for supervised day trips, but it was overruled on appeal.

On further investigation, I found the decision for U.S. Court of Appeals case 97-3094 Hinckley v. U.S., which provided some frightening details.

It references a 1987 entry in Hinckley’s journal, at a time when Hinckley had already undergone five years of treatment and had convinced his psychiatrists that he had recovered enough for conditional release.

“I dare say that not one psychiatrist who has analyzed me knows any more about me than the average person on the street who has read about me in the newspapers. Psychiatry is a guessing game and I do my best to keep the fools guessing about me.”

In Hinckley’s appeal, his psychiatrists testified he suffers from a psychotic disorder and major depression, which are in remission, and narcissistic personality disorder which is active.

Commander Jeanette Wick, chief pharmacist at the hospital, testified about her dealings with Hinckley. After they met in February or March of 1995, Hinckley made frequent unannounced visits to her office. Hinckley gave her audio tapes of music he made, one of which was a love song containing Wick’s pet name for her daughter.

When Wick then told Hinckley not to come to her office without calling first, the pharmacy started getting a lot of hang-up calls, but when Wick answered the phone, Hinckley would identify himself. Hinckley was then prohibited from having any contact with Wick or going to her building, but he would still be waiting in the foyer of another building once every month when Wick had a meeting there. Hinckley offered no evidence to discredit Wick’s testimony.

The government’s expert psychiatrist witness, Raymond Patterson, testified about the similarities between Hinckley’s relationships with Wick and Jodie Foster and about his trend of deception and secretiveness.

Despite all of this, his psychiatrists are still trying to get him a conditional release.

The scary part is not that Hinckley gets to go on day trips. The Secret Service has been and would be on him like stink for all of his visits. This would make it difficult for him to cause trouble, although it wastes taxpayer money to have the Secret Service chase around someone who should be locked up.

The scary part is that if they are willing to let Hinckley loose, what kind of people are being set free that are equally disturbed but have committed low-profile crimes?

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Erik Hoversten is a senior in math from Eagan, Minn.