Editorial: The Mentally Ill
This is a shameful situation in an advanced society that ignores its most vulnerable members
Prison or jail is not the right place for people who suffer from mental disability; however, that’s where most of them end up being, instead of in hospitals and psychiatric centers. This misplacement exposes them to violence in the hands of guards who have not been trained to deal with the mentally ill.
The Human Rights Watch report unveiled yesterday shows a worrying situation in which jails and prisons personnel all over the country use force in an unnecessary, excessive and even malicious manner against individuals with mental problems such as schizophrenia and bipolarity.
This is a shameful situation in an advanced society that ignores its most vulnerable members, preferring to store and forget them in prisons instead of treating them in a dignified and humane manner.
The movement to deinstitutionalize patients with mental disorders in past decades left them on the street, at the same time that budget cuts affected health care and supporting networks. Thus, they became adrift and at the hands of the police authorities every time they caused a problem. The numerous cases of homeless killed by police officers during their arrest illustrate the officers’ lack of preparation to deal with them.
This only gets worse during reclusion, where inmates with mental problems are punished more frequently than the rest, often because they act accordingly with their illness. The frustration, lack of preparation and brutality of some of the guards led to applying electric shocks, tying them to a chair for days on end, breaking their jaws and even damaging internal organs.
It is estimated that close to 20% of jail inmates, and 15% of those in prison, suffer from serious mental illnesses. That means some 356,000 people in this situation, compared to the 35,000 individuals housed in state hospitals.
This is inhumane. There are legislative options in Congress (S.993 y HR.1854) to fund programs and strategies to help the mentally disabled during the different stages of the judicial system. It is also paramount to train the penitentiary personnel so it’s able to deal with those individuals. But what is required fundamentally is a change of mentality to intervene before the mentally ill commits an infraction that that will send him to jail, and recognize that the street and homelessness are not the way to treat them.
