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State DOC sued for alleged abuse of mentally ill
The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania announced today that it was suing the state Department of Corrections for violating the Eighth Amendment, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. The suit alleges that the use of "Restricted Housing Units" (RHUs), better known as solitary confinement, is unconstitutional when applied to seriously mentally ill prisoners, something the DRN claims is standard practice in Penna. correctional facilities.
State DOC sued for alleged abuse of mentally ill
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The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania announced today that it was suing the state Department of Corrections for violating the Eighth Amendment, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. The suit alleges that the use of "Restricted Housing Units" (RHUs), better known as solitary confinement, is unconstitutional when applied to seriously mentally ill prisoners, something the DRN claims is standard practice in Penna. correctional facilities.
In a press release today, the DRN outlined abusive practices that it says adversely affects some 800 prisoners that are diagnosed as mentally ill, but who continue to be punished with solitary confinement for behavior that is often a manifestation of their illness. The group alleges that the state is aware that solitary confinement can "exacerbate the symptoms of mental illness", causing "sleeplessness, hallucinations, and paranoia", but continues the punishment nonetheless. In worst case scenarios, solitary confinement has been known to catalyze self-destructive behavior, like head-banging, cutting and suicide attempts The suit says such behavior is often perversely addressed with more RHU time. Nearly half of all prison suicides nationwide occur while the incarcerated are being held in solitary.
RHU protocols result in inmates being locked down in a roughly 80 square foot cell for up to 23 hours a day. While some free time is allotted, many psychologically impaired individuals lose the will to leave their cell after prolonged punishment, refusing recreation time and even medical treatment. Psychological services are often minimal, usually occurring as brief cell-front visits with counselors, that do little to address mentally ill inmates' deeper symptoms, says the DRN.
RHU time is also disproportionately meted out to the mentally ill - in spite of comprising less than two percent of the state's 51,184 inmates, prisoners with severe mental health issues make up nearly one third of RHU occupants.
"This is a vile and inhumane way to treat people with mental illness," said Robert W. Meek, DRN's attorney. "Pennsylvania should give these prisoners beds in units designed to help people with mental illness, not devastate them."
Solitary confinement has come under increasing criticism by human rights groups as a form of torture when applied to any prisoner, but this appears to be the first lawsuit aimed at curtailing the practice in Penna.
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