The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law heard from Illinois Department of Corrections Director Michael Randle and others in its first-ever hearing related to a domestic human rights issue – mental health in U.S. prisons. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, set the hearing after learning about alleged problems with the treatment of mentally ill patients at the Tamms super max prison.

Tamms Year Ten Committee, a group based in Chicago, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have urged action on reports of prisoners being held too long in solitary confinement without any mental health treatment, despite displaying problems.

Randle is investigating how Tamms and other state prisons address mental health issues, a directive from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

“Mental illness has been criminalized in our country over the last 30 years,” Durbin said. “By allowing our prisons and jails to become a primary provider of mental health services, we have taken a step backward in the effort to protect the human rights of people with mental illness.”

More than 2.3 million people are imprisoned in the U.S. and half of all inmates have a mental health problem, according to a 2006 study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice. Mentally ill prisoners have little or no access to services and their conditions often deteriorate, as was alleged in multiple cases at Tamms.

http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2009/09/15/breaking_news/doc4aafd563d71b0862786042.txt
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