(Feb. 1, 2016) No mentally ill inmate will be placed in solitary confinement for more than thirty days, according to a settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union, Indiana Protection & Advocacy Services and Department of Corrections. In addition, inmates will receive individual and group counseling, as well as more recreational opportunities (“Lawsuit settlement makes Indiana leader in inmate mental health treatment,” Fox 59, Jan. 28).
In 2008, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Corrections for its excessive use of solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners.
“Segregation, not surprisingly, is toxic particularly to those who are mentally ill,” said ACLU Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk. “There were a lot of prisoners in there for punishment because they had misbehaved because of their mental illness.”
With 5,600 mentally-ill inmates, the Indiana Department of Correction houses more people with psychiatric problems than all other facilities across the state combined. The Marion County Jail is the leading mental health facility in Indianapolis, with almost 900 offenders on daily medication.
“These are all prisoners who will be getting out. It is to society’s advantage, all of our advantage, to treat their mental illness the best we can in prison,” said Falk about the DOC settlement.
Falk said a new 250-bed facility for the mentally ill at Pendleton Correctional Facility is evidence of DOC’s shift towards better strategies, policies and treatment of offenders suffering from mental illness.
The ACLU and advocacy groups will continue to monitor the system for three years.
Last week, the ACLU settled another lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Health for long wait times for inmates to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial.
As awareness and outrage about the criminalization of mental illness across the country continues to grow across, we expect to see a wave of states settle similar lawsuits in the future.
We commend the ACLU for bringing these lawsuits against the state prison systems for the deplorable way our criminal justice system handles people with mental illness.
But the problem remains. If we really want to get serious about reducing solitary confinement we should ensure that people who enter jail receive the treatment they need, when they need it. In its current state, the American prison system is incapable of adequately meeting the mental health needs of its inmates.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center’s 2014 report, “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails,” to learn more.
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