Hello all,
Welcome to a blog dedicated to exploring the many aspects of mental health/mental health care and solitary confinement in American correctional institutions. Within this blog, we aim to explore and discuss these subjects, but also, discuss how to reform these especially troubled aspects of the criminal justice system as the blog develops. I would like to begin by evoking the tragic story of Kalief Browder, a young New Yorker unjustly thrust into the criminal justice system. Sixteen-year-old Kalief, an African American Bronx native, was walking home from a party late one night when he was wrongfully accused of stealing a backpack containing a camera, $700, a credit card, and an iPod Touch. Kalief was locked in the violent Rikers Island Prison Complex. Initially unable to afford bail, and subsequently denied the possibility of bail, Kalief was forced to spend over three years of his life in jail, while his case was endlessly adjourned. Kalief’s time at Rikers can only be described as torture. He fell victim to gang violence and abuse from prison guards, some of which was caught on film. Of his three years at Rikers Island, two of them were spent in solitary confinement. Solitary took a grave toll on the young man’s mental health. Kalief attempted suicide multiple times, cutting his wrists with a modified toothbrush and creating a noose out of bedsheets. Despite the torture he endured in jail, Kalief maintained his innocence in court, rejecting plea deals that would have allowed him to go home. Eventually, in anticipation of the dismissal of charges against Kalief, he was freed. After his release, Kalief tried his best to move on, taking GED prep classes daily. However, the mental wounds he endured during his time spent in solitary confinement and from violence at the hands of guards and inmates, would never heal. He grew frustrated and paranoid, punching walls and throwing away a TV because he thought it was watching him. Kalief attempted suicide on multiple occasions and had to spend weeks in psychiatric wards. During an interview after his release, Kalief said, “I’m mentally scarred right now … there are certain things that changed about me and they might not go back … I’m paranoid. I feel like I was robbed of my happiness.” Two years after his release from jail, on June 6th, 2015, Kalief hung himself in his mother’s home, leaving her to find the body. This tragic story is one that showcases the failure of the criminal justice system, as well as the dangerous intersection between mental health and solitary confinement. Unfortunately, cases like Kalief Browder’s are not isolated, innocent people are locked up every day. For more information on the exoneration of wrongfully incarcerated persons, please take a moment to visit the Innocence Project website.
It is common knowledge that excess time in solitary confinement can have adverse effects on the mental health of even the most resilient people. However, there is the separate issue of placing inmates with already known, pre-existing mental health conditions, into solitary. Eric Balaban, senior staff counsel with the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, has spent years fighting against solitary confinement and inadequate mental health care at Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, Arizona. Balaban, who has spent the last twenty-three years visiting correctional institutions nationwide, was compelled to fight for better conditions at the Maricopa County Jail after visiting. “The first thing that hits you is the smell—an acrid stench that knocks you back a few paces. When you see inside the cells, you understand. Men, often nude, are covered in filth. Their cell floors are littered with rancid milk cartons and food containers. Their stopped-up toilets overflow with waste,” (Balaban.) Specifically, Balaban is speaking of the conditions within Maricopa County Jail’s Special Management Unit or SMU. This is the jail’s solitary confinement unit that is supposed to be reserved for the facility’s most dangerous inmates. Unfortunately, this unit has become a “dumping ground” for the institutions mentally ill population. “The behavior that lands these men in the SMU is often the product of their untreated or mismanaged illness—like repeated outbursts or refusing orders,” (Balaban.) Instead of focusing on the overarching problem of the mental illness in the institution, they choose the cheap way out. Intense isolation only worsens the symptoms of mental illness, further exacerbating the problem. “They become more disassociated from reality. They refuse to eat, and refuse medications and treatment. As a result, they are more prone to making outbursts or threatening staff, which the jail then uses to justify keeping them in the SMU,” (Balaban.)
Several correctional institutions across the nation have heeded expert information, ending long-term solitary confinement for mentally ill inmates. Two of the states that banned long-term solitary, Michigan and Massachusetts, have seen a drastic decrease in the incidents of violent crime and self-harm within their institutions. The Maricopa County Jail, however, has remained steadfast in it’s use of solitary confinement. This is why Eric Balaban has felt the need to represent Maricopa County’s pretrial inmates, challenging unconstitutional conditions. Finally, in 2008, a local judge found the institutions healthcare system unconstitutional, specifically noting the detrimental effects of long-term solitary confinement on mentally ill inmates. “Over the next six years, the psychiatrist appointed by Judge Wake to monitor the jail’s mental health system documented the life-threatening harm being done to prisoners who are warehoused in the SMU. Yet, the jail still has not excluded these men from this unit,” (Balaban.) However, there is a positive side to this issue. Last fall, the presiding sheriff of the county, Joe Arpaio, was voted out of office. It is the hope of Balaban and, of course, the inmates, that the incumbent Sheriff Paul Penzone will close the jail’s Special Management Unit. “We were encouraged as Sheriff Penzone dismantled parts of Sheriff Arpaio’s inhumane jail system … he is willing to reform the jail to bring it in line with sound correctional practices, and to enhance public safety. The next step on this path is to shutter the SMU,” (Balaban.)
Works Cited
Balaban, Eric. “Time Has Come to Save Mentally Ill Inmates from Solitary Confinement.”Arizona Capitol Times, 27 Feb. 2018, azcapitoltimes.com/news/2018/02/27/time-has-come-to-save-mentally-ill-inmates-from-solitary-confinement/.
Mental Health and Solitary Confinement in America's Jails 