(Sept. 4, 2015) Michael James Tyree, 31, an inmate with mental illness at the Santa Clara County Jail, died last week at the hands of three correctional officers in what Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith called a “brutal murder.”
Tyree was waiting to be transferred to a mental-health facility at time of his death, said Public Defender Molly O'Neal.
“Stories about the escalating crisis of mentally ill inmates no longer surprise us,” said John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. “Statistics show that not only are the number of mentally ill in jails and prisons continuing to climb, but the severity of inmates’ illnesses is on the rise as well. People with mental illness are not only disproportionately incarcerated, but also disproportionately mistreated in custody.”
The emptying of state psychiatric hospitals for the past half-century has reduced the number of public beds for acutely or chronically ill patients by more than 90%, while the U.S. population has nearly doubled. California has only 29% of the beds necessary to meet the needs of its population with severe mental illness, according to a 2012 Treatment Advocacy Center study “No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals."
The state also has 4 times as many people with mental illness incarcerated than receiving treatment in a hospital. Nationwide, a Treatment Advocacy Center study shows there are more than 10 times as many people with mental illness behind bars than receiving inpatient treatment.
“The wholesale elimination of hospital beds for people with mental illness nationwide is a driving force behind a long list of terrible consequences,” Snook continued. “We should be embarrassed that our mental health system has abandoned so many in need.”
The tragedy in Santa Clara is the latest in a series of incidents across the nation in which a mentally ill prisoner was forced to remain in jail due to a lack of adequate psychiatric beds.
Tyree was waiting to be transferred to a mental-health facility at time of his death, said Public Defender Molly O'Neal.“Stories about the escalating crisis of mentally ill inmates no longer surprise us,” said John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. “Statistics show that not only are the number of mentally ill in jails and prisons continuing to climb, but the severity of inmates’ illnesses is on the rise as well. People with mental illness are not only disproportionately incarcerated, but also disproportionately mistreated in custody.”
The emptying of state psychiatric hospitals for the past half-century has reduced the number of public beds for acutely or chronically ill patients by more than 90%, while the U.S. population has nearly doubled. California has only 29% of the beds necessary to meet the needs of its population with severe mental illness, according to a 2012 Treatment Advocacy Center study “No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals."
The state also has 4 times as many people with mental illness incarcerated than receiving treatment in a hospital. Nationwide, a Treatment Advocacy Center study shows there are more than 10 times as many people with mental illness behind bars than receiving inpatient treatment.
“The wholesale elimination of hospital beds for people with mental illness nationwide is a driving force behind a long list of terrible consequences,” Snook continued. “We should be embarrassed that our mental health system has abandoned so many in need.”
The tragedy in Santa Clara is the latest in a series of incidents across the nation in which a mentally ill prisoner was forced to remain in jail due to a lack of adequate psychiatric beds.
- In Virginia, Jamycheal Mitchell, arrested for stealing less than $5 of food, died while waiting for a psychiatric hospital bed. Mitchell had been jailed for four months after a judge ordered him moved to a state mental health, as no bed was available.
- In Pennsylvania, Leon Raymond Walls was sent to prison, despite a state law requiring he be provided treatment. Walls had been found guilty but mentally ill after stabbing several people in 2013. Judge Donna Jo McDaniel explained, “It’s very difficult for me to find someplace appropriate for you to go.”
- In Mississippi, Olivia Brown has been jailed for more than a year awaiting a bed at the state hospital. Another county reports inmates waiting more than two years for a mental evaluation. Mississippi has only 35 beds for pre-trial evaluations and treatment in the entire state.
- In Washington state, a federal judge ordered the state to reduce wait times to seven days for competency evaluation and restoration of mentally ill defendants by January. She had previously held that the state violated pretrial criminal defendants’ due process rights by keeping them jailed for weeks or months awaiting mental competency evaluations.
- Elsewhere in California, the ACLU has filed suit against Alameda County officials alleging that more than 350 defendants deemed incompetent were left waiting admission to a state hospital, some having been jailed for more than 5 months.
“We will keep seeing tragedies like this until we provide sufficient inpatient beds to meet the needs of people with mental illness,” the executive said. “If there had been a hospital bed available for Michael James Tyree, he may be alive today.”
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