(May 14, 2015) Use of stun guns, chemical sprays and chair restraints are among the grotesque but routine physical abuse that inmates with mental illness experience, according to a report by Human Rights Watch released earlier this week (“Report: Mentally ill inmates routinely abused by corrections officers,” Aljazeera America, May 12).
“Force is used against prisoners even when, because of their illness, they cannot understand or comply with staff orders,” said James Fellner, author of the report. “All too often, force is what staff members know and what they use. In badly run facilities, officers control inmates, including those with mental illness, through punitive violence.”
The case of Darren Rainey, a 50-year-old, schizophrenic inmate at a prison in Florida, is a particularly gruesome example.
According to the report, as a disciplinary measure corrections staff took Rainey to a shower with the water temperature set to scalding hot. Rainey was unable to turn the water off or change the temperature, and he could not open the door unless officers let him out. When staff returned two hours later, Rainey was dead on the shower floor, with burns all over his body.
We have long said that jails and prisons are extremely dangerous and inhumane places for people with mental illness. Mentally ill inmates are often victimized, disproportionately held in solitary confinement and frequently attempt suicide. The fact that we accept this practice in the United States is incomprehensible, but there are now 10 times more individuals with serious mental illness in jails and prisons than there are in state hospitals.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center report “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” to learn more.
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“Force is used against prisoners even when, because of their illness, they cannot understand or comply with staff orders,” said James Fellner, author of the report. “All too often, force is what staff members know and what they use. In badly run facilities, officers control inmates, including those with mental illness, through punitive violence.”The case of Darren Rainey, a 50-year-old, schizophrenic inmate at a prison in Florida, is a particularly gruesome example.
According to the report, as a disciplinary measure corrections staff took Rainey to a shower with the water temperature set to scalding hot. Rainey was unable to turn the water off or change the temperature, and he could not open the door unless officers let him out. When staff returned two hours later, Rainey was dead on the shower floor, with burns all over his body.
We have long said that jails and prisons are extremely dangerous and inhumane places for people with mental illness. Mentally ill inmates are often victimized, disproportionately held in solitary confinement and frequently attempt suicide. The fact that we accept this practice in the United States is incomprehensible, but there are now 10 times more individuals with serious mental illness in jails and prisons than there are in state hospitals.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center report “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” to learn more.
To comment, visit our Facebook page.
Visit our blog archive to read all our recent posts.