(June 12, 2014) The Alabama Department of Corrections is indifferent to the serious medical needs of inmates and they're condemned to facilities where “systemic indifference, discrimination and dangerous…conditions are the norm,” according to “Cruel Confinement,” a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The system fails to identify inmates with mental illnesses, provide adequate mental health care or equip the facilities for mentally ill inmates, the SPLC said. “Psychiatric medication is often stopped or changed without any discussion between the psychiatrist and the patient.”
One prisoner reported hearing voices and engaged in self-harming behavior for eight years before the prison staff identified him as in need of mental health care.
“The failure to identify prisoners in need of mental health care or to provide them with the level of care needed is a violation of the Eighth Amendment,” the report says.
Of the 60 patients who did actually receive medication for a mental illness in April 2014, none had any further contact with a mental health professional, according to the report. There are 4 full-time psychiatrists and 5.6 psychologists for all the inmates in the Alabama corrections system.
“This disregard for adequate health care and the law endangers the health and the lives of prisoners,” the report notes.
The report was based on inspections of Alabama’s 15 prisons, interviews with more than 100 prisoners, a review of thousands of pages of medical records as well as depositions and media accounts and the policies, contracts and reports of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) and two of its major contractors.
Read the entire report here.
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