US prison system abuses mentally ill inmates: report

NEW YORK

Prisoners with mental disabilities are facing excessive violence at the hands of jail staff throughout the U.S., the Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

In its 126-page report, the New York-based body said that the U.S. prison staff used beatings, chemical agents and electric stun devices to respond to minor and non-threatening misconducts such as banging on a cell door or complaining about not receiving a meal.

"Unwarranted, excessive, and punitive force against prisoners with mental health problems is widespread and may be increasing in more than 5,100 jails and prisons in the United States," the rights group said.

In one such case, staff at a California prison sprayed a prisoner approximately 40 times with pepper spray, and threw four pepper spray grenades into his cell after the man resisted to come out of his cell, the report said.

In another, officers in a Florida prison allegedly put a schizophrenia-diagnosed prisoner in a scalding shower on the grounds that the man defecated on the floor of his cell and refused to clean it up.

The inmate, who could not control the water’s temperature or flow, was dead after being left in the shower for more than an hour, the report alleged.

“Jails and prisons can be dangerous, damaging, and even deadly places for men and women with mental health problems,” said Jamie Fellner, who authored the report.

“Force is used against prisoners even when, because of their illness, they cannot understand or comply with staff orders,” he added.

The report also detailed incidents in which jail staff strapped prisoners for days in restraining chairs or beds; broke their jaws, noses, ribs; left them with lacerations requiring stitches, second-degree burns, deep bruises, and damaged internal organs.

An estimated one in five prisoners in the U.S. has a serious mental illness, and an estimated five percent are actively psychotic at any given moment, according to the Human Rights Watch.

"Public officials should reduce the number of prisoners with mental disabilities confined in prisons and jails, including by increasing the availability of community mental health resources and access to criminal justice diversion programs," the New York-based body said.

It also urged authorities to ensure that prisons adopt sound policies on using force that take into account the unique needs and vulnerabilities of prisoners with mental illness.

“Custody staff are not trained in how to work with prisoners with mental disabilities, how to defuse volatile situations, or how to talk prisoners into complying with orders,” Fellner said.

“All too often, force is what staff members know and what they use. In badly run facilities officers control inmates, including those with mental illness, through punitive violence,” he said.