[NYAPRS Enews] Former NYS Top Judge, Auburn Citizen, Family Members Urge Spitzer to Approve SHU Bill

Tue Jun 12 08:00:33 EDT 2007

NYAPRS Note: Today's newspapers emphasize the great magnitude of the
momentum of public will urging our Governor to negotiate an agreement on
the SHU bill. Yesterday, amendments to the legislation clarifying the
scope and cost of the measure (thereby addressing the Governor's major
stated objection) were introduced by both houses. A statewide call in
action today (see next posting) and a NYC Thursday noon rally further
exemplify how important his action here is. More tomorrow.

Below find stirring appeals to the Governor by the former chief judge of
the NYS Court of Appeals, by the editorial board of an upstate newspaper
which runs in an area populated by many state prisons and where Senate
champion Michael Nozzolio resides and by several family members of
current prisoners. 

Ban 'The Box' For The Mentally Ill

Sick Inmates Should Never Be Isolated And Mistreated. From One Who
Knows: 'Cold Mercy' Serves No One.

BY SOL WACHTLER    Newsday OP ED    June 12, 2007

Sol Wachtler is a former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals
and teaches constitutional law at the Touro Law School.

'Reliance on the cold mercy of custodial isolation will be supplanted by
the open warmth of community concern and capability."

President John F. Kennedy spoke those words 44 years ago when he signed
the Community Mental Health Centers Act. The intent of the act was to
close the psychiatric hospitals and provide community-based care for the
mentally ill. The unintended effect of the act was to close the asylums
and make prisons the nation's repository for our mentally ill.

The Justice Department says roughly 16 percent of inmates in American
prisons have serious psychiatric illnesses. They are not in prison
because they are mentally ill, but rather because they violated the law.
If their crime is the result of their mental illness, efforts should be
made through mental-health courts to divert them from prison. But for
the mentally ill who are sentenced to prison, there must be a
recognition of their desperate need for help. 

This recognition was absent when it came to the incarceration of
thousands of mentally ill veterans returning from Vietnam who, because
of drug and related crimes, ended up in prison. We cannot let it happen
to those veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq who, because of
the high incidence of mental disorders, may become involved with the
criminal-justice system.

As we treat prisoners who suffer physical disabilities, so, too, should
we concern ourselves with the treatment of prisoners who suffer from
mental illness. Winston Churchill once observed that one of the most
unfailing tests of a civilization is how a country treats its criminals.
How much more telling is the way a country treats its mentally ill
prisoners? 

Five years ago Disabilities Advocates Inc. brought a lawsuit against the
State Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services,
seeking to eliminate the destructive practice of placing mentally ill
prisoners in punitive segregation known as solitary confinement. "The
box" is a 6-by-8-foot cell where the prisoner is locked down for 23
hours a day. 

That suit was settled, and although the settlement will lead to some
improvements, it doesn't come close to resolving the problems presented
by our abuse of the imprisoned mentally ill. The 23 hours a day of
lockdown will now be reduced to 21 hours a day. This has been heralded
as a meaningful concession - it is far from that.

For most inmates, the extra two hours a day is useless if they are
returned to the box. When you are caged like an animal in a cell not
much larger than a bathroom, losing all sense of time, beset by noises
and smells that defy description, being told that you can spend an extra
hour or two in an isolated outdoor cage subject to catcalls from other
inmates is not beneficial. Being returned to the hole in isolation makes
the drill counterproductive and the prisoner even more dysfunctional. 

My observations in this regard are not premised on academic theory. I
spent more than a month in solitary confinement in a mental-health
prison unit and can tell you from that tortured and mind-bending
experience that psychiatrists or medical professionals, not prison
guards, should oversee mentally ill inmates. And no severely mentally
ill prisoner should ever be put in the box.

As The Correctional Association of New York recently reported: "On
nearly every site visit we encountered at least one or two individuals
in disciplinary lockdown who were active psychotic, delusional or
immobilized by depression ... who mutilated their own flesh, who hadn't
left their cell in months and repeatedly attempted suicide."

Last week the State Senate unanimously passed legislation that would
eliminate solitary confinement for prisoners who are seriously mentally
ill. The Assembly is in the process of passing the same legislation.
This legislation will allow New York to join many states - including New
Jersey, Connecticut, California, Texas and Florida - in keeping the
seriously mentally ill out of solitary confinement. Similar legislation
was passed last year and vetoed by Gov. George Pataki.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has already shown his concern for this problem by
committing substantial funding for psychiatric services for prisoners.
Those who have studied the proposed legislation are in agreement the
funds the governor has already committed for the care of mentally ill
prisoners would cover the costs of this necessary reform. It is the
earnest prayer of those who abhor the mistreatment of the mentally ill
that Gov. Spitzer will not veto the legislation. 

We have seen the return of the "cold mercy of custodial isolation" in
our criminalizing of mental illness. You don't have to be a trained
penologist or psychiatrist to know that a mentally ill person should not
be put in solitary confinement.

Not only is such internment uncivilized, it is also counterproductive.
Most of the inmates will one day return to the streets in a worse state
than they were when arrested. 

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-optrk5252396jun12,0,6529432.story
?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines 

------------------

Spitzer Should Support More Prison Reform

Auburn Citizen Editorial   June 11, 2007

There was hope in Gov. George Pataki's lame duck status when he vetoed
legislation last year that would have ended the barbaric and ultimately
dangerous practice of solitary confinement for mentally ill state prison
inmates.

A new governor, we thought, might see the wisdom in this law, which has
had the overwhelming support of both the state Assembly and Senate.

Unfortunately, it appears as though Gov. Eliot Spitzer, citing cost
concerns, is poised to do the same thing.

That would be a mistake if this governor has true concern for prison
safety, for both the inmates housed in these facilities as well as the
employees who work inside the walls.

It's even more disappointing because Spitzer had offered a glimmer of
hope that he truly understood this issue. Earlier this year, he settled
a long-standing lawsuit related to the treatment of mentally ill
prisoners and agreed to make a range of improvements - such as
addressing training for staff and treatment for the inmates.

In the end, though, he's come up short now that we know the details of
his "reforms."

It's not every day that advocates for inmates, mental health
professionals and the state's corrections officers and law enforcement
unions agree on policy proposals for the state prisons, but they're all
on the same page for the elimination of solitary confinement for
mentally ill inmates.

Put aside the utter degradation it creates - some people have little
sympathy for those who committed crimes to land themselves behind bars.

But this treatment of mentally ill inmates only makes their problems
worse, and that ultimately jeopardizes the safety of all the people
inside a state prison.

State Sen. Michael Nozzolio, a longtime representative of communities
that have state prisons, has rightly pushed for this legislation as the
chairman of the Senate Corrections Committee. Hopefully he and his
colleagues have enough time to get the governor to change his mind.

http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2007/06/11/news/opinion/our_view/ourvi
ew01.txt 

---------------

Confinement Further Tortures The Mentally Ill  

Letters to the Albany Times Union   June 12, 2007 

I cannot express my gratitude for the wonderful June 6 editorial, "Stop
the torture now." Without all your efforts to bring into the public's
view the horrific conditions mentally ill state prisoners face in
special housing units, these horror stories would never be told.

I am the mother of one such inmate, who spent seven years in such
conditions in various state prisons to which he should never have been
sent, as they did not have forensic units on-site. The horrific
conditions under which this most vulnerable population lives only
exacerbates their illness.

Many have taken their own lives while others wallow in their own feces.
Our governor should stop malingering and pass the bill to end the
torture.

IRENE HELALE

Staten Island

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=597123&category=O
PINION&newsdate=6/12/2007 

---------------

Spitzer's Stance On SHU Bill Disappointing  

Letters to the Albany Times Union    June 12, 2007 

As a family member with someone with a psychiatric disability who is now
in solitary confinement, I want to thank you for your June 6 editorial
in support of the Special Housing Units bill.

I know how the cruel punishment of SHU exacerbates mental illness. It is
unconscionable that Gov. Spitzer wants to continue this inhumane
treatment. His lack of support for this vulnerable population is a
surprise after all his campaign promises about reform and change in
Albany.

It is unfair to family members who live with the fear daily that their
loved one might not survive the SHU. We expected more from this newly
elected Democratic governor. 

LEAH GITTER

New York 

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=597121&category=O
PINION&newsdate=6/12/2007 

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