Relates to the segregated confinement of inmates with serious mental illness

1 Co-sponsor

• Bill Perkins

BILL NUMBER:S5906

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to limiting the segregated confinement of persons in a correctional facility with serious mental illness

Purpose

To ensure that inmates are not placed in segregated confinement -- a Special Housing Unit (SHU) -- unless they have engaged in highly dangerous, violent or serious escape-related behavior while incarcerated in that facility.

To limit the amount of time that an inmate may spend in a SHU to 90 days, except for an inmate whose behavior exposes a pattern of extreme violence or danger to himself or others.

To establish an independent review board, to be known as the "inmate's special housing unit review council," to determine after 90 days whether continued confinement in an SHU is warranted and necessary. The council will be composed of seven members appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. One member shall be an attorney, one member shall be a mental health professional, one member shall be a criminal justice expert appointed from within employees of the state university system, and one member shall be a former inmate.

To ensure that inmates suffering from a mental illness shall not be unnecessarily confined in a SHU whether such mental illness preceded such confinement or developed during the course of such confinement. Requires inmate's removal from segregated confinement except in exceptional circumstances as defined in correction law section 137 (d)(ii)(E).

Summary of provisions

Paragraphs (c), (d), (e) and (f) of subdivision 6 of section 137 of the correction law are relettered paragraphs (e), (f), (g) and (h) and two new paragraphs (c) and (d) are added and subparagraph (i) of paragraph (f), as amended by Chapter 1 of the laws of 2008 and as relettered, is amended.

Existing law

No provision of the correction law applies to this issue.

Justification

In New York nearly 4,300 (as of September 2011) prisoners are confined to 23 hour disciplinary lockdown in SHU. This amounts to roughly eight percent of the State's more than 56,000 inmates, a reliance on SHU that is four times the national average of about two percent.

Prisoners who act out or cannot comply with rules in the general prison population likely suffer from mild forms of mental illness to begin with. As of August 2011, approximately 14.5 percent of the State's inmate population has some form of mental illness, of which the Office of Mental Health designated 2,562 as seriously mentally

ill. The majority of these inmates with serious mental illness were previously residing in general population.

The psychiatric problems of inmates deepen and become profoundly dangerous during long months, even years, in the isolation of SHU. Prisoners confined to 23-hour lockdown in SHU exhibit symptoms of mental illness, including depression, increased paranoia, agitation, manic activity, delusions, florid psychotic illness and suicide. Of the total number of inmates designated as seriously mentally ill, 278 of the total number of inmates designated as seriously mentally ill had a confinement sanction (either SHU or Keeplock) over 30 days. Of this number, 272 were in a Residential Mental Health Treatment Unit (RMHTU), not a segregated confinement unit. It is vital that we continue to ensure mentally ill inmates receive treatment rather than disciplinary punishment.

Legislative history

2001-2002: S.1634 Died in Committee 2003-2004: S.2272 Died in Committee 2005-2006: S.1498 Died in Committee 2007-2008: S.2013 Died in Committee

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Local fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.