Apparently, you don’t have to be declared an enemy combatant to be detained for an indefinite period without trial in America. In some parts of the country, being poor, black, and mentally retarded is sufficient, as the following disturbing report from ABC News details:
Man Held Without Trial for 14 Years
Floyd Brown’s psychiatrists in Dorothea Dix Hospital say he can’t tell time or the difference between right and left. He has trouble handling money, naming the day of the week or remembering the name of the mental institution where he has been held against his will for the last 14 years.
But, according to his regular psychiatric reports, family members and lawyers, the 43-year-old has been consistent about two things as the years have passed: He didn’t kill Katherine Lynch 14 years ago and he wants to go home.
Brown, who is mentally retarded, is stuck in what his lawyers call a “cruel legal limbo.” He has been locked up without trial in Dorothea Dix, in Raleigh, N.C., since his arrest, charged with a murder he says he did not commit.
Because he can’t understand the legal process, Brown can’t be brought to trial and the evidence against him can’t be tested in front of a jury. Prosecutors have said Brown is dangerous and refuse to release him.
But an ABC News review of Brown’s court, psychiatric and school records and interviews with his family, attorneys and some of the police officers involved in his case raise questions about Brown’s guilt.
There were no known witnesses to Lynch’s murder and no physical evidence links Brown to her death. Much of the physical evidence in the case, which could potentially prove Brown’s guilt or innocence, has disappeared. [full text]
Kmareka.com 
An interesting and heartbreaking book on this subject is Pete Earley’s Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness. Earley was granted unrestricted access to Miami-Dade County jail and recounts the infinity loop that mentally ill prisoners get caught in: They’re sent to a mental facility just until they are pronounced well enough to stand trial, then they are transported back to prison to await trial. But the courts are backlogged, and in the meantime mentally ill prisoners don’t receive the meds or treatment necessary to maintain their level of wellness, causing inevitable mental regression such that they are bounced back to the mental facility until they can be pronounced well enough to stand trial, and so on and on and on. Mentally ill prisoners can exist for years in this loop without ever standing trial on their charges, which are often minor, and beyond what should be an obvious compassionate response, one would think taxpayers should be up in arms about this extraordinary waste of resources. Jabberwocky is alive and well in the U.S.
Thanks for your insight, Teresa, and the reference to the Earley book. It looks like it is worth reading. Perhaps key policymakers on this issue would benefit from a briefing on the subject.