Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Incarcerated Mentally Ill



Ah, it's a ClinkShrink topic but she's off for the weekend answering a call to the opera, so I'm filling in and posting an article from The New York Times.  Abby Goodnough writes in "Deal to Reduce Isolation of Mentally Ill Inmates,"



The settlement results from a lawsuit filed in 2007 by an advocacy group. It sought to stop Massachusetts from placing mentally ill inmates with disciplinary problems in small isolation cells for up to 23 hours a day, saying that doing so violated their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.


3 comments:

George Dawson, MD, DFAPA said...

"They included some who, according to the suit, were segregated for years at a time against the recommendations of clinicians." This is incredible but the expected outcome where the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country are county jails. I think that a lot more can be done on the prosecution and diversion side. Too many people are incarcerated for trespassing who are not aware that they have committed a crime. Counties also have the cost center mentality and may believe that cursory treatment in jail is better than a spectrum of outpatient mental health and social services.

noiln said...

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Sunny CA said...

I feel sorry for the mentally ill (and non-mentally ill) in solitary confinement in our prisons. In certain areas, we are not at all an enlightened country. I think it is because we let small groups of people (like prison guards and wardens) make decisions without input from the American public. The same hold true for psych wards.