Wednesday, October 22, 2003

United States: Mentally Ill Mistreated in Prison
Announcement at the Human Rights Watch web site - "Mentally ill offenders face mistreatment and neglect in many U.S. prisons, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today. One in six U.S. prisoners is mentally ill. Many of them suffer from serious illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. There are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons as in mental health hospitals. The rate of mental illness in the prison population is three times higher than in the general population..." See also the full (215 page) report, Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness (Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

Report on State Prisons Cites Inmates' Mental Illness
New York Times story - "Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation — confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day — are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies. One in five of the roughly 5,000 prisoners punished with that isolation have a serious drug problem, the report said. But despite graphic evidence that the most acutely ill prisoners in punitive segregation, or lockdown, often grow only more troubled and violent, the state Department of Correctional Services, which runs the state's 70 prisons, rarely does anything to help them, said the report, released yesterday by the group, the Correctional Association of New York." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free]. See also related resources at the Correctional Association of New York web site and at the Prison Mental Health Project site. The Prison Mental Health Project "a system-wide study of mental health services in New York State prisons. With funding from Pfizer and The New York Community Trust, the Prison Mental Health Project is conducting site visits to mental health units in all twelve maximum-security prisons, the Central New York Psychiatric Center and five of the less intensive "step down" units in medium-security facilities. ... "