The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch said in a letter to auditors that his department faces significant challenges. Providing effective treatment in prison required prioritizing needs, using resources wisely, and emphasizing rehabilitation and treatment, he said.

Legislative Audit Committee Co-Chair Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, called the report disturbing.

"Mental illness can be managed," she said. "But the audit provides evidence this is not happening to the extent it should."

Wisconsin's mentally ill inmate population has been booming. While the total inmate population increased 3.9 percent between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of mentally ill inmates went up 14.3 percent. Last June, nearly 31 percent of the state's 22,451 inmates were identified as mentally ill.

The state's care of mentally ill female inmates has been a problem for years.

In 2006, the U.S. Justice Department declared the lack of mental health care at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, the state's largest women's prison, violated inmates' constitutional rights. The state agreed in September to make improvements to avoid a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit.

Federal investigators who toured Taycheedah in 2005 found mentally ill inmates locked in isolation cells and given psychotropic drugs without a doctor's supervision.

Under the agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, state corrections officials have up to four years to make improvements or face a lawsuit.

The state committed to building an $11 million, 45-bed addition for mentally ill women at the Wisconsin Resource Center in Winnebago. It is scheduled to be done in 2011.

The Department of Corrections has requested $7.6 million to build more treatment space at Taycheedah. Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed budget requests 149 more positions and $6.6 million to operate the addition at the Wisconsin Resource Center and to provide more services at Taycheedah.

The audit showed that the state spent nearly $60 million on mentally ill inmates in the 2007 fiscal year.

Among the report's findings:

-- The prisons don't have enough psychiatrists or psychologists to meet national standards.

-- Group and individual therapy is limited, although psychologists do monitor mentally ill inmates on a regular basis.

-- Correctional officers deliver most medications. In neighboring states, medical staff deliver most drugs.

-- Clearer policies, more centralized decision-making, and more detailed record-keeping could ensure the Wisconsin Resource Center runs more efficiently.

-- Mentally ill inmates accounted for more than 90 percent of special placements due to self-harm between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2008. Those placements require prison workers to check on inmates every 15 minutes.

-- Mentally ill inmates accounted for nearly 80 percent of assaults on staff in the past three years. Those assaults resulted in $874,200 in worker's compensation awards to staff in that time.

-- The Department of Corrections could strengthen its policies to ensure inmates receive disability and medical benefits in a timely way after leaving prison.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-inmatementalhealt,0,1483471.story