Three Butler County lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday to add a "guilty but insane" plea to Ohio's justice system. Their colleagues would do well to give it swift, serious consideration.

It would replace the "not guilty by reason of insanity" plea that has made it possible for some who commit heinous crimes to be released after just a few years' treatment in a mental institution. Other states - among them Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin - have adopted "guilty but insane" pleas. It is time for Ohio to follow their lead.

Current law includes no prison time, and orders the judge to place the defendant in the "least restrictive setting" for treatment. If the defense can convince a jury that a defendant committed a crime while insane, he is committed to a hospital, then released when considered "cured."

Under the proposal by Rep. Greg Jolivette, R-Hamilton, a defendant convicted as "guilty but insane" would receive mental treatment, followed by prison time. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Gary Cates, R-West Chester Township, and Rep. Shawn Webster, R-Hanover Township.

This is not a new debate. The issue was raised in 1994, after Clay Shrout, the Union, Ky. teen who killed his mother, father and two sisters, was sentenced to 25 years in prison under that state's "guilty but mentally ill" plea. A bill to create such a plea in Ohio passed the state House 89-7, but went no further.

Recent events have helped revive the issue in Ohio:

• John Hinckley Jr., found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan, this week was granted unsupervised visits with his parents away from the institution in which he has lived.

• The case of Lee Boyd Malvo, convicted last week in the Washington D.C. sniper case, included claims that the teenage Malvo had been brainwashed and left with a mental illness called a "dissociative disorder."

Some argue it is unfair to confine and treat a person who, once cured, is then imprisoned for an act the law has ruled he was not responsible for.

That might be addressed if the new law stipulates that the total of treatment and prison time will be roughly equal to what a straight prison term would be for a "guilty" verdict - and if it includes closer supervision after release.

Such a solution could satisfy both the community's sense of justice and the defendant's right to fairness. Lawmakers should waste no time crafting a workable "guilty but insane" plea.