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Lawsuit seeks
to end segregation of mentally
ill prisoners
(June
2007 Issue)
By Pamela Berard
The Disability Law Center has filed a federal lawsuit that seeks
to end the segregated confinement of mentally ill prisoners by the
Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, states that
the isolation of prisoners with mental illness "subjects these vulnerable
individuals to conditions they are physically and psychologically
incapable of tolerating for any sustained period of time."
The suit claims prisoners with mental illness suffer psychological
harm from isolation and sometimes inflict harm to themselves or
commit suicide as a result of placement in segregation. The suit
alleges the practice is cruel and unusual punishment that violates
the Constitutional rights of the prisoners and is in violation of
the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It details the cases of several mentally ill inmates who have spent
time in segregation, several of whom committed suicide.
"There's a significant body of medical literature that discusses
what happens when people with serious mental illness are held in
segregation over a long period of time," said Rick Glassman, director
of litigation for the Disability Law Center. "Increasingly courts
have understood this and begun to hold that these conditions are
cruel and unusual punishment," and other jurisdictions have responded
and ended the practice of segregation of mentally ill prisoners,
he says.
Glassman says the most significant order made in the suit is for
the Department of Corrections to establish a maximum security, secure
residential treatment unit or units as alternative to segregation
for mentally ill prisoners.
"These inmates may or may not be able to be put back into general
population in the prison," he says. "But in either case they can
be given treatment in a secure setting so that's really what we
are seeking."
"All over the country there have been examples of these kinds of
treatment facilities being established with a lot of success," Glassman
continues. "I think Massachusetts is in many ways behind the curve
in terms of what other jurisdictions have been doing."
This facility must provide for at least 15 hours per week of structured
out-of-cell activities, including therapy and rehabilitation, and
at least 10 hours per week of out-of-cell time for unstructured
activity, such as recreation and showers, according to the court
document.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said the
department does not comment on pending litigation.
Similar lawsuits in other states have spurred similar changes,
including in California, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Connecticut and
New Mexico.
In February, the DOC announced it would comply with 29 recommendations
after an independent study found problems with how prisons handle
suicidal inmates. The end of segregation for mentally ill inmates
was not among them.
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