<span>Contrary to uninformed opinion, defendants who are found
not guilty by the reason of insanity are not merely released from the custody.
They are usually committed into mental hospitals where they are confined for duration
longer than their prison terms would have been. For example in the case
of Jones v. United States, the Supreme Court in 1983 backed this
proposition, ruling that the sentence that criminal defendants should have received
had they been convicted shall have no bearing on how long they could be
committed to a mental hospital.</span>
<span>Therefore the correct answer to fill in the blank is “may
be longer”.</span>
