Mentally Ill Inmates Are Routinely Physically Abused, Study Says - nytimes

Mentally ill inmates in prisons and jails across the United States are subjected to routine physical abuse by guards, including being doused with chemical sprays, shocked with electronic stun guns and strapped for hours to chairs or beds, according to a report by Human Rights Watch to be released on Tuesday.

The mistreatment, the study says, has led to deaths, though the number of casualties is unclear in part because jails and prisons classify them in various ways. Also, jails and prisons are not uniformly required to report the use of force by guards, the study found.

Jamie Fellner, a senior adviser at Human Rights Watch and the report’s author, said the study was the first to take a comprehensive look at use of force by guards against mentally ill prisoners, to try to understand the dynamics behind the violence. Ms. Fellner said she spent more than a year interviewing some 125 officials and mental health experts and reviewing hundreds of cases across the country.

The review found that prisoners suffering from serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are often punished with physical force for commonplace behaviors including using profanity and banging on cell doors.

“Prisoners with mental disabilities may struggle more than others to adjust to the extraordinary stresses of incarceration, to follow the rules governing every aspect of life and to respond promptly to staff orders,” said the report, “Callous and Cruel: Use of Force Against Inmates With Mental Disabilities in U.S. Jails and Prisons.”

The study faulted prisons and jails for failing to offer sufficient mental health treatment; doing too little to protect mentally ill patients from physical abuse by staff members, who are often inadequately trained; and having leadership not sufficiently focused on mental health issues.

The National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency that provides funding and offers support programs to corrections agencies, said inmates’ mental health was among its highest priorities. The organization said it had hosted a national meeting in which chief mental health officers from state prisons had met “to map out directions for future movement in improving correctional mental health care,” according to the organization’s website.

Concern about how to care for the mentally ill in jails and prisons has intensified in recent years as people who may once have been sent to a hospital where they would have access to treatment are now more likely to be sent to prisons that lack sufficient psychiatric staff, the report said. There are now far more people with mental illnesses in prisons and jails than there are in state psychiatric hospitals.

A Justice Department study found that 75 percent of women and 50 percent of men in state penitentiaries, and 75 percent of women and 63 percent of men in local jails, will suffer from a mental health problem requiring services in any given year.  Read More at NYT

Mentally Ill Inmates Are Routinely Abused, Study Says

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