A lawsuit filed by the Disability Rights Network (DRN) on March 11, 2013 challenges current practices of solitary confinement in PA prisons for people with serious mental illness and argues that the PA Department of Corrections has caused undue suffering by upholding policies and procedures that are deliberately indifferent to prisoners’ constitutional rights. The lawsuit outlines current conditions of confinement, highlighting 23 to 24 hour lock down in cells with constant lights on, denial of adequate mental health care, lack of rehabilitative or therapeutic programming and lack of constructive pathways to parole. It summarizes DOC violations as the following: enforcement of a disciplinary system that does not factor mental illness; a known failure to provide even minimal mental health treatment or make treatment available; confinement conditions that exacerbate mental health problems; a refusal to take steps to correct known systemic violations.
Hundreds of prisoners and many ranking staff members were interviewed and visited by the DRN to understand mental health practices in the prison system. 800 prisoners, who are currently held in solitary, have been classified as having a “serious” mental illness on the DOC mental health scale and are obliged at least 1 “drive-by” visit by a mental health person at their cell slot every 90 days. Robert Meek of the DRN argues that prisoners with mental health needs are in a “Dickensian” punishment nightmare, where they cannot receive treatment, but do receive disciplinary infractions for behaviors related to their mental health issues. Once a person receives an infraction, they are put in solitary confinement in conditions that further deteriorate mental health. While in solitary, prisoners may display symptoms of their mental illness or behaviors resulting from their isolated conditions, such as using obscene language, acting paranoid, inflicting self harm, throwing bodily waste, hearing voices, refusing to eat, etc. These behaviors are then punished with more and more time in isolation.
The DRN found that in cases where mental illness was identified and where housing a person in solitary was not recommended, the DOC failed to follow its own recommendations, or those of judges or the court system to keep a person out of isolation or get a person into therapy. 2/3 of the 800 people classified as having a mental illness in solitary also reported being double celled in their housing units, often as a staff orchestrated suicide watch system. The DRN found double celling prisoners with mental illness in solitary conditions led to violence and decreased stability.
Twelve specific case studies were outlined in the complaint, demonstrating experiences of people with mental health needs who are cycling in and out of solitary confinement or failing the DOC step down programs they cannot conform to. One person was assessed as having borderline personality disorder, found incompetent to stand trial, and in need of structured and supervised psychiatric care. Instead he was placed in solitary (RHU). He received rule infractions for acting out, smearing feces, masturbating for a female staff person, refusing to provide a urine sample, and self mutilation. He reported that auditory hallucinations caused him to do things. He requested mental health assistance at hearings and filed grievances to no change. He has acquired RHU disciplinary custody time for 10 years past his maximum prison sentencedate.
Another prisoner, a woman who has a long history of mental illness, has been cycling in and out of solitary for 11 years and has accumulated 115 misconduct reports for symptoms of her mental illness, including self harm and flooding her cell. The DOC has her listed as being in a mental health unit, though no unit exists at the women’s prison. She cannot get paroled because of misconducts stemming from her mental illness.
For all twelve case studies, an outside psychiatrist concluded that the prisoner should get psychosocial rehabilitation and individual counseling, which is not available to most prisoners.
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