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jmannThe Herald BulletinFriday, June 2, 2006D3Indiana DOC moving mentally illoffenders out of supermax unitsBy KEN KUSMERThe Associated PressINDIANAPOLIS — Indianaprison officials facing a federal civil rights lawsuit for locking up mentally ill inmates in virtual isolation have agreed to move most of them into lessharsh conditions.The India Correction the affectedWestville Control Unit andfrom the Secured Housing Unit of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility by October, Commissioner J. David Donahue confirmed to The Associated Press.The inmates — whose mental conditions can deteriorate by being locked up 23 hours per day in the one-man cells — will receive the psychiatric care they need before moving into general prison populations, said Donahue and Dr. Elton Amos, the DOC’s medical director.shownpeople that have a serious psychological disorder may be worsened by being put in these secured housing units,” Amos said. “The place itself may contribute to mental illness.”The new policy brings the Indiana prison system closer to eliminating a black eye and the state closer to settling a federal complaint naming Donahue and others as defendants. The American Civil Liberties Union alleged the isolation and other conditions atthe Wabash Valley Secured Housing Unit, or SHU, in western Indiana led four inmates since 2000 to kill themselves and others to hallucinate and rip chunks of flesh from their bodies.The case had been set to go to trial Aug. 28. But in a joint motion with the ACLU granted on May 10, the state asked for delays because it was planning to move the inmates.The unit in Carlisle, about 30 miles south of Terre Haute,houses up to 288 prisoners, and one-half to two-thirds ofmentallying to court papers.The new policy also applies to 224 cells at the WestvilleCorrectional miles west of South Bend,even though they were not part of the ACLU lawsuit, Donahue said.Ken Falk, one of the ACLU attorneys, said the cells, sometimes dubbed*4supermax units, are designed with conditions so onerous that inmates tend to behave to avoid going back.Inmates have no contact with one another and generally spend 23 hours per day in cells about 7 feet by 12 feet, each with a concrete bed and plastic mattress, a metal shelf, a fixed table and stool, and a combination sink and toilet. Many choose to remain locked in theircells 24 hours per day because there’s no group recreation.Some mentally ill inmates have spent 20 years or more incarcerated in the cells, Falk said.“The reality is, if you’re seriously mentally ill, you’re not going to be able to change your behavior, Falk said.The new policy affects inmates with a range of mental disorders including anxiety, impulse control, psychosis,cognitive problems and substance abuse. They generally can be treated with inedica-otherwiseaged, Amos said.Donahue said the new policy comes at the request of the DOC medical staff.Until now, when symptoms of mentally ill inmates deteriorated enough, the DOC would transport them from the SHU and Westville to itspsychiatric care unit in New Castle. Once New Castle stabilized these inmates, the DOC returned them to the single cells, where their condi tions often deteriorated again, Donahue said.Nineteen percent of the approximately 26,000 male and female, adult and juvenile offenders held by the DOC are diagnosed with a mental illness, and 12 percent take psychotropic medications, Donahue said. Nearly all of them, 97 percent, eventually will be released back to society, so the agency must do what it can to prepare them for life on the outside, he said.It’s about doing the best job that we can for our mental health support,” Donahue said.”t*Kellie Meyer, criminal justice director for the Indianachapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness,said the new policy will “make for a better citizen upon release, quite frankly.”
Newspaper Details
Anderson Herald Bulletin
Anderson, Indiana, US
Fri, Jun 02, 2006
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Monroe C.
IN, USA 28 Jun 2021
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