SALEM - Accused criminals suffering solely from certain sexual disorders no longer could plead insanity as a defense under a measure passed Monday by the Senate.

The bill was approved 29-1 without debate and now goes to the House.

The measure is part of a larger effort by mental health authorities to restrict uses of the insanity defense, by which accused offenders claim a mental disease or defect influenced their actions.

Defendants who are found guilty "except for insanity," instead of going to prison, are put in custody of the Psychiatric Security Review Board and usually sent to Oregon State Hospital. The board monitors their progress and has authority over releases.

Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, said the measure, Senate Bill 40, would no longer consider such behavior as voyeurism, exhibitionism and fetishism as mental diseases or defects for which the insanity plea could be used. The hospital isn't equipped to treat such offenders, Whitsett said.

The legislation "will allow more appropriate placement in corrections facilities," he said.

A major mental health advocacy group, NAMI, supports the bill, said John Holmes, executive director of the Multnomah County arm of the organization.

"There is an important distinction to be made" between people with certain sexual disorders and those with major mental ailments, said Holmes, of the organization formerly known as Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "We want to send a message that people with mental illness are not the same as people who are sex offenders," he said. "It's a different kind of disorder."

The state Supreme Court is weighing two appeal cases that also could shave the use of insanity pleas. The issue in those is whether alcohol or drug dependence, without other evidence of other mental ailments, are disorders justifying hospitalization instead of prison sentences.

Lawyers for patients in those cases argue that because there are no treatment programs for substance abuse at the hospital, once any other major mental illnesses are successfully treated, patients should be released.

The State Hospital in Salem also is under scrutiny because of the crowded and aging quarters where the criminal convicts are housed. Lawmakers in December financed a study of whether some or all of the institution should be replaced.

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On the Net:

Senate Bill 40

http://www.leg.state.or.us