Author: Eileen Baldry (MENAFN - The Conversation) This week, the royal commission into the violence, abuse and neglect of people with disability will begin hold hearings on a shameful subject that has long been neglected: the indefinite detention of people with cognitive impairments and/or mental illness in our criminal justice systems. Indefinite detention is what happens to defendants in criminal cases when they are deemed unfit to stand trial . In common law, this 'unfitness test' is based on whether the accused has sufficient mental or intellectual capacity to understand the proceedings and make an adequate defence. If a person is found unfit to plead, they can instead be detained in a prison or forensic unit for the purposes of treatment. This detention can be indefinite if the person is deemed to be a risk of harming themselves or others and is not seen to improve.