“United States: Force Against Prisoners With Mental Illness”

English: Human Rights Watch logo Русский: Логотип Хьюман Райтс Вотч (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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This May 12, 2015 article on the Human Rights Watch website talks about the abuse of power often used in handling mentally ill inmate that leads to injuries and even death because of what amounts to minor infractions of the rules or orders given to them.  One example in the article is about a woman who was not given her medication while she was incarcerated and at one point refused to change her jumpsuit and ended up being tasered multiple times within a matter of a few short minutes.

Related articles

• Mentally ill inmates abused in 5,000 US detention centers (rinf.com)
• Treatment of mentally ill inmates across nation is “callous and cruel”, says Human Rights Watch (pennlive.com)
• What It’s Like To Treat The Mentally Ill In An Abusive Prison (thinkprogress.org)
• Police Assault Mentally Ill Homeless Man in LA (soulbrotherspeaks.com)
• US human rights report: Mentally ill prisoners abused (stuff.co.nz)
• Human Rights Watch decries US prison system’s use of force against mentally ill | US news | The Guardian (theguardian.com)
• New Study: Inmates Suffering From Mental Illness Routinely Abused by Prison Guards (marketsanity.com)

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“Housing, not asylums”

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This March 24, 2015 article found on the Philly.com website talks about the idea that providing safe affordable housing with appropriate supportive services could reduce homelessness and incarceration rates among those with mental health issues who have found themselves either incarcerated or homeless .. or both.

“Asylum for the severely mentally ill”

High Royds solitary confinement – geograph.org.uk – 1047059 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Asylum for the severely mentally ill.

This undated audio segment found on the WHYY – Voices In The Family, talks about the issues surrounding the treatment of people with mental illnesses describing how state hospitals have been run in the past, the closure of many of them, and the result of poor funding of community based services which has resulted in an influx of people with mental illnesses ending up in jails and prisons where they are often heavily medicated or placed in solitary confinement for long periods of time.   There is a link within the description of the segment pointing to an article on the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) “Improving Long-term Psychiatric Care Bring Back the Asylum” is a freely accessible publication and is the article that the interview in this segment is based on.