Mental Health Care in Prison
The ACLU National Prison Project works to ensure that prisoners receive adequate mental health care, and to end conditions of confinement that can exacerbate existing diseases or have negative psychological effects on even prisoners without mental illness.
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Features
Stop Solitary - The Dangerous Overuse of Solitary Confinement in the United States: Over the last two decades corrections systems have increasingly relied on solitary confinement as a prison management tool – even building entire institutions called “supermax prisons” where prisoners are held in conditions of extreme isolation, sometimes for years or decades. But solitary confinement jeopardizes our public safety, is fundamentally inhumane and wastes taxpayer dollars. We must insist on humane and more cost-effective methods of punishment and prison management.
Reports
Report on Mental Health Issues at Los Angeles County Jail (2008 PDF): Enclosed is Dr. Terry Kupers’ report and findings following his visit to the jail on May 8 and 9, 2008. Dr. Kupers makes a number of recommendations that we would like to discuss with LASD and DMH staff.
Letters
A Letter to the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County Jail (2009 PDF)
Other Resources
Human Rights at Home: Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons and Jails (2009 PDF): This statement addresses the problem of deplorable treatment of several populations of mentally ill prisoners including women, juveniles, and immigration detainees. This statement also details the successful reforms instituted at Unit 32 at Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) – a model for all state and federal prisons that has produced better outcomes in terms of mental health, prison discipline, and ability to integrate back into society upon release. The ACLU urges Congress to fund Parchman-like models on the federal level and to create incentives for states to adopt Parchman-like models.
Most Popular
ACLU Strikes Deal To Shutter Notorious Unit 32 At Mississippi State Penitentiary (2010 press release): In June 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) struck a deal to shutter the notorious Unit 32 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the subject of a longstanding ACLU lawsuit challenging inhumane conditions and a lack of medical and mental health care.
Federal Court Orders Louisiana to Provide Mental Health Care for Pretrial Detainees (2010 press release)
ACLU Urges Court to Fine Virgin Islands Officials for Indefinitely Detaining Innocent Mentally Ill Inmates (2007 press release)
Solitary Confinement Called "Inappropriate" for Mentally Ill Prisoners in Indiana (2007 press release)
Women at Wisconsin’s Taycheedah Prison Suffer Medical Neglect and Receive Worse Mental Health Care Than Men (2006 press release)
