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Bread and Cabbage Diet for Mentally Ill Prisoners

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 01:35:00 AM EST
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New York has settled a lawsuit brought by advocates for mentally ill prisoners. Among the practices the state has agreed to stop: 23 hour a day isolation and feeding them a diet of bread and cabbage.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan in 2002 by several prisoners’ rights groups against the administration of Gov. George E. Pataki, claimed that the state had failed to provide the treatment the prisoners needed and that solitary confinement had led to severe psychiatric deterioration, self-mutilation and suicide.

The agreement with the administration of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, which still requires court approval, means that the mentally ill who are confined to special housing units will get at least two hours of treatment outside their cells each day and as many as four hours’ additional recreation time. As attorney general, Mr. Spitzer represented the Pataki administration in the case, but he said last year that he would not hesitate to change course as governor.

Bread and cabbage? Shameful.

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    Bread and Cabbage Diet for Mentally Ill Prisoners | 7 comments (7 topical)

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    Are these prisoners (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by HK on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 04:12:42 AM EST
    ones who will eventually be released?  If so, does the state of New York think that upon their release they will be more willing to make efforts to contribute positively to society or less?  This is not just an appalling abuse of human rights, it is counterproductive.  Apart from tackling drugs issues, addressing mental health problems properly is probably one of the most effective ways to reduce crime.  This treatment of prisoners does everyone a disservice.

    Oh for Chrissakes! (none / 0) (#1)
    by Kitt on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 02:22:20 AM EST
    Could they just be any more STUPID!

    In the suit....

    claimed that the state had failed to provide the treatment the prisoners needed and that solitary confinement had led to severe psychiatric deterioration, self-mutilation and suicide
    .

    Ya think?

    An epidemic of brain malfunction. n/t (none / 0) (#3)
    by JSN on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 08:13:06 AM EST


    solitary (none / 0) (#4)
    by diogenes on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 11:09:12 AM EST
    Prisoners with severe mental illnesses are also known to be homicidal and assaultive to other inmates/patients.  It requires assorted court orders to get psychotic prisoners to take medication against their will in New York State.  
    I've had patients at the forensic psychiatric hospital in Marcy NY get beaten by other violent patients, so this rule works both ways.
    People who are in put in solitary are pretty disturbed to start with; it would be good to know if they actually had a higher frequency of suicide than before or if people in solitary are particularly disturbed or refusing medication and thus likely to be doomed anyway.
    Inmates in these units may like "highly safe" rec time, but I bet many of them would prefer more solitary time to running around in rec in a maximum security prison without a lot of supervision, which is more like reality, especially now.  
    Sounds like the dominant alpha types who were dumped in solitary pressed this suit and won. Now they can roam for four hours a day no matter what their condition unless they are at that moment "imminently dangerous" to others.  
    Someone from this blog should try being a patient on one of these special units for awhile.

    Bread and Cabbage (none / 0) (#5)
    by mack on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 11:18:03 AM EST
    diogenes,

    What are your thoughts on the practice of restricting these particular inmates to a diet consisting of only bread and cabbage?

    Parent

    White bread or Whole Grain? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Peaches on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 12:07:57 PM EST
    Actually a diet consisting of whole grain bread and organically grown cabbage would be a better diet than the majority of Americans get. Somehow, though, I would guess that its wonder bread and cabbage treated with pesticides.

    Parent
    cruel and inhuman (none / 0) (#6)
    by Sailor on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 12:04:28 PM EST
    Bedlam had just slightly less compassion than these folks.

    Sounds like the dominant alpha types who were dumped in solitary pressed this suit and won.

    no
    The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan in 2002 by several prisoners' rights groups

    Prisoners with severe mental illnesses are also known to be homicidal and assaultive to other inmates/patients.  
    what percentage are 'known' to be homicidal and assaultive? You don't have a clue, you're just one of the lock 'em up and forget about 'em club.
    BTW, There was no treatment so they were unlikely to get better, and even sane people go insane in solitary.
    More:
    New York's Office of Mental Health reported that in 2002, 70 percent of prisoners who had committed suicide also had a history of mental illness.
    [...]
    In a study sample of inmates with mental illness, the average reported length of solitary confinement was 38 months. Official state data indicates that lockdown sentences average five months for the general prison population.

    Here's a first hand account from a former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals(pdf)

    The sheer lack of compassion some people have make me wonder if we aren't locking the wrong folks up.

    Parent

    Bread and Cabbage Diet for Mentally Ill Prisoners | 7 comments (7 topical)

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