Civil Rights Groups Sue Doña Ana County Jail over Poor Mental Health Services (11/7/2007)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
LAS CRUCES, NM—Civil rights groups sued the Dona Ana County Detention
Center today for failure to provide adequate mental health services to inmates
in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and constitutional
prohibitions on “cruel and unusual punishment.” The class action suit
charges county officials with “deliberate indifference to [inmates’] serious
mental health needs,” including failure to provide adequate mental health
screening, monitoring, and care. On behalf of plaintiffs, Protection and
Advocacy System, Inc. (P&A), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of
New Mexico, and private attorneys Michael Lilley of Las Cruces and Peter Cubra
and Lisa Schatz-Vance of Albuquerque seek an effective program for mental health
screening and treatment for all detainees and policy changes prohibiting the
unnecessary incarceration of people with mental illness.
“Local officials have chosen to arrest and
incarcerate people with serious mental disabilities instead of providing them
with the treatment they require,” said P&A Executive Director, Jim
Jackson. “After incarcerating them, the county does not provide them with
needed treatment at the jail, either. We gave County officials multiple
chances to fix the situation and they ignored our efforts. We felt
litigation was our only recourse.”
In December, 2006, a jail conditions expert,
hired by P&A, inspected the jail and sent a memo to detention center
Director Chris Barela recommending improvements in the jail’s program for mental
health screening. When their letter went ignored, P&A sent a second
letter in June, 2007 requesting that specific problems regarding inadequate
mental health care be corrected. The letter followed an attempted suicide
by a person held in the jail who is a named plaintiff in the civil rights
suit. In May and September 2007 P&A visited with jail officials and
reiterated their concerns.
None of these contacts prompted significant
improvements in mental health programming.
ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said,
“By ignoring inmates’ mental health problems, the county has created a lose-lose
situation. The inmates suffer. The jail suffers, because it faces
possible suicides and violence within the facility. And ultimately the
citizens of Doña Ana county lose, because eventually some of these inmates will
return to society in worse mental states than when they entered the jail.
It’s high time the situation was resolved for all concerned.”
The lawsuit was filed in state court. In
addition to policy changes, it seeks punitive and compensatory damages.
Download the legal complaint:
http://aclu-nm.org/PDF/Complaint11_7_07.pdf
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