Prisons For The Mentally Ill (Part II)
The purpose of treating mentally ill persons is to restore them to a functional level of sanity. Prisons not only fail to achieve this goal, but prisoners are defined as beyond any hope of rehabilitative redemption by the very officials who have suggested building prisons for the mentally ill! We have here a very clear per-formative contradiction. Or at the very least, an example of Orwellian double-speak.
Pursuant to the American Bar Association Standards for Criminal Justice Chapter 23 – Legal Status of Prisoners – Standard 23-4.3 Availability of Rehabilitative Programs, I quote, “Corrections Authorities after consultation with the Prisoners and consideration of their records, should determine the types of rehabilitative programs, including self-improvement and educating programs, that will benefit them, and should thereafter seek to provide access to as many such programs as feasible, either by establishing such programs or by contracting with outside agencies or individuals for such services.”
Please note that “should”, unlike “shall”, is not mandatory language. Officials are not obligated to comply with “shoulds”. That said, if officials were at all interested in rehabilitating not only the mentally ill, but inmates in general, they would seem to be inclined to providing the types of programs recommended by the American Bar Association. In practice, the Department displays no such inclination and, in fact, makes every effort to work against such rehabilitation.
Consequently, one must ask, why then, would officials want to build more prisons for the mentally ill? What purpose is served? Put bluntly, the objectives are to merely warehouse the mentally ill, manage them via psycho-pharmacology to treat their root problems. Remember, officials have asserted that prisoners cannot be rehabilitated.
True prisons for the mentally ill would be very costly to construct and operate. The Florida tax payer would be stuck footing the bill with minimal or no commensurate return on invested tax dollars. The only cure here is a superficial and geographical one. Out of sight may be out of mind, but it does nothing to practically address the problems that are caused by mental illness, and not by criminal behavior. Once these facilities are filled, then what? It does not eliminate the mentally ill from society. More mentally ill persons will take their place. Do they propose more prisons to house the mentally ill? Almost certainly. Where does it end? When, if I may pun on the subject matter, does any sense of sanity begin to assert itself and prevail?
Currently, the Florida Department of Corrections operates numerous prisons that are designated for the mentally ill who may also require medication. I mentioned Washington Correctional Institution in the first part of this blog. Other such facilities include Apalachacolla C.I., Jefferson C.I., Union C.I., Tomoka C.I., Zephyr Hills C.I., Lake C.I., Dade C.I., amongst others. Some of these facilities are better than Washington, a few are dismal, most are worse. None successfully treat mental illness. Why build still more prisons for the mentally ill, when those that already exist are failures?
Nearly ten years ago, a former DOC staff member Connie Schenk wrote a detailed report for the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee, detailing the systematic failures of mental health problems caused by hostile prison administrations at Taylor C.I., Liberty C.I. and others.
Ms. Schenk is a medical doctor and psychologist. Her chilling report reveals how abusive corrections staff are towards inmates in general, and mentally ill inmates in particular. Ms. Schenk became the target of Institutional Administrative ire because of her attempt to do her job properly. She tried to treat the mentally ill inmates in her care, and to protect them from the deprivations and abuses of sadistically motivated prison employees. As a result, she was run out of her job by coworkers who had turned on her. Blowing the whistle got her ostracized and silenced.
Worse, after receipt of Ms. Schenk’s detailed and objective report, the Florida State Senate Criminal Justice Committee did absolutely nothing to address the issues raised by Ms. Schenk. In fact she was dismissed as a disgruntled former employee! She was punished for attempting to do what was morally right.
Now not only must we question why the state wishes to build several new prisons for the mentally ill, we must also ask how we can bring the prisons that already exist to treat mentall ill prisoners into functional compliance with their designated purpose. This will be the subject of the next part of my blog. To be continued…
Michael Wachter