A California inmate refuses orders that require him to take anti-psychotic medication for his mental disorder. After he smears his own excrement inside his cell, the attending psychiatrist and correctional officers decide to remove him forcibly from his cell and give him an injection. The officers order him to extend his hands through the cell’s food slot so that he can be handcuffed and when he ignores them, officers spray his cell with OC spray, commonly called pepper spray. He still refuses so they shoot additional bursts directly into his face and on his body until he finally submits.
He is finally forced from his cell and knocked to the floor. He is taken to another cell where he is strapped onto a gurney with all of his limbs bound.
This thirty minute record of the incident may be difficult to watch if you have a mental illness or love someone who does. But the procedures that it documents are actually carried out in a much more humane and professional manner than what I observed in the Miami Dade County jail when I did my research for my book.
None of the officers in Miami had received any special training at that time to deal with persons with mental illnesses. Some officers beat inmates.
A number of disturbing videos of inmates being pepper sprayed have been posted recently on the internet, including one that has outraged Maine officials because the prisoner is being held in a chair and shot directly in the face in apparent retribution.
The continued closing of state hospitals and a lack of adequate community based services are two reasons why jails and prisons have become our new asylums. Sadly, I have found that some civil rights groups and mental health advocates are reluctant to discuss or oppose the unnecessary jailing of persons who are severely ill. Part of their reluctance stems from their fear that states will stop closing mental hospitals in favor of community care and begin building new hospitals, as is being done in Oregon and in Virginia.
Until we truly develop a community based system that affords immediate access to wrap around services, including housing and Assertive Community Treatment teams, jails and prisons will continue to serve as warehouses.
This is both wrong, inhumane and a national scandal.
NOTE: A GLITCH IN OUR SYSTEM HAPPENED IN SEPTEMBER THAT RESULTED IN EMAILS SENT VIA G-MAIL TO PETE EARLEY GOING DIRECTLY TO SPAM UNTIL NOVEMBER 7, 2013. WE HAVE WORKED TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AND APOLOGIZE IF YOUR EMAIL WAS NOT ACKNOWLEDGED OR ANSWERED.
About the author:
