(Feb. 26, 2014) A federal investigation into the Pennsylvania corrections system found that depriving inmates with serious mental illness of all human contact by placing them in solitary confinement “violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment (“Report criticizes treatment of mentally ill Pa. prisoners,” Feb. 24).”
In a one-year span the Pennsylvania corrections system “kept more than 1,000 prisoners on its mental health roster in solitary confinement for more than 90 days…with nearly 250 of those inmates in solitary confinement for more than a year,” the Department of Justice found.
In a one-month span, “prisoners with serious mental illness were being placed in solitary confinement at twice the rate of other prisoners,” the report also noted.
"Pennsylvania's unconstitutional use of solitary confinement of prisoners with serious mental health illness victimizes one of the most vulnerable groups in our society," said U.S. attorney David J. Hickton.
At the Treatment Advocacy Center we have long said that people with mental illness are ending up in jails in prisons when they should instead be receiving treatment in inpatient or outpatient programs.
Unfortunately, in Pennsylvania, where the standard for mandatory inpatient or outpatient treatment is incredibly high, people have to deteriorate to the point of dangerousness before they become eligible.
This means people with serious mental illness in Pennsylvania are nearly twice as likely to end up in jail than in a psychiatric hospital, and according to the new report, also two times more likely to face solitary confinement upon incarceration.
Confinement is mistreatment, and it must stop.
Read other consequences of untreated severe mental illness.
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