The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"Staff also stated that some inmates are housed in administrative segregation solely because their psychiatric symptoms are so severe that there is simply no other place to put them," investigators wrote in their May 2006 report. "This often leads to ... further dangerous behavior."

While the state does operate an inpatient treatment center for men inmates with severe mental illness, there is no equivalent facility for women inmates. But as the defendant in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union -- and with the threat of another lawsuit coming from the U.S. Justice Department -- the state is taking steps to change that situation.

The state Building Commission in April recommended building a free-standing $11 million, 45-bed female treatment center at the Winnebago Mental Health Institution. The Joint Finance Committee is expected to vote today on whether to support this project in the 2007-09 capital budget.

In its request for funding, the department of Health and Family Services said the state would likely be sued if it did not build a facility equivalent to the Wisconsin Resource Center for male inmates.

"Should the state fail to voluntarily correct these shortcomings, the U.S. DOJ has indicated it will initiate legal action to force compliance," the department said.

It also noted that the state's current practice of using the Winnebago Mental Health Institution for inpatient services was not adequate for several reasons, including insufficient space and appropriate security.

Todd Winstrom, attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin, which has kept close tabs on health care issues at Taycheedah, agrees.

Winnebago is "not equipped to take female inmates for the long term," he said. "It hasn't really been effective from anyone's perspective."

In a memo to the Joint Finance Committee, Winstrom said the Department of Corrections estimates that 50 percent of women in Wisconsin's prisons have a diagnosed mental illness; 18 percent in this group have the "most serious and persistent" forms of mental illness.

The prevalence of mental illness among female inmates is twice that of male prisoners, Winstrom also said.

"The single most glaring need to get to the point where we're starting to provide minimally adequate treatment to the women with the most serious mental health needs in our prisons is the ability to offer intensive, inpatient treatment," Winstrom said in an interview. "The U.S. Department of Justice and ACLU both identified this as just a gaping hole in the range of services we're offering to these women."

Winstrom said putting mentally ill inmates in isolation only exacerbates an individual's symptoms and dangerous behavior and has, as noted in the U.S. Justice Department report, resulted in at least one inmate killing herself.

It behooves the state to address the mental health needs of women prisoners, Winstrom added.

"Women coming out of prison who've been able to get the kind of treatment they need because this facility exists will return to the community much more stable, less likely to get into trouble again and much less likely to pose a public safety threat," he said. "Everyone benefits from this."

Efforts to reach Joint Finance Committee co-chairmen Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, and Rep. Kitty Rhoades, R-Hudson, were unsuccessful.
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/136184