Like I said, I can only comment on the system in the US. I hadn't heard of the person you mentioned, but it seems this was a case in Germany where he was found

Like I said, I can only comment on the system in the US. I hadn't heard of the person you mentioned, but it seems this was a case in Germany where he was found not guilty of charges on the basis of insanity, and held in a psychiatric facility. I'm not entirely sure if that could happen in a US court. Getting a not guilty by insanity verdict is rare, and would have to be made by the defense with the consent of the defendant. There is absolutely room for abuse in the system, in the US and any other country, I won't argue against that. And I'd love to here any proposed reforms or ideas you might have about improving that. Requiring the mental health evaluator and the facility treating you to be separate would reduce the issue you mentioned about being re-evaluated by "colleagues of the person (or the same person) who initially committed you" and I think that is currently the case in the US in some states, though I'm not sure. Also requiring that someone always has access to an attorney would be good (again, I'm fairly sure that's true in the US). I also think significantly more funding should be made available to mental health institutions, allowing people to voluntarily enter for free or for a small rate, expansion of halfway-house type facilities and programs, restructuring the administration of facilities (a big complaint from my father is that bureaucrats with little education often had control over facility policies rather than the PhDs who dedicated themselves to studying the best way to treat mental illness)