Move Mentally Ill Inmates

1 Co-sponsor

• Velmanette Montgomery

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the removal of inmates diagnosed with mental illness to a residential mental health treatment unit

Purpose

To keep seriously mentally ill inmates out of solitary confinement once they have been diagnosed with a qualifying mental illness.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends Correction Law § 137(6)(d)(i).

Section 2 amends Correction Law § 137(6)(e)(i).

Section 3 provides an effective date.

Justification

When an inmate with serious mental illness moves through the correction- al system, he or she sees different mental health providers in different facilities and may have differing severity of symptoms at different times. An inmate who has a mental disorder that qualifies him or her to be excluded from solitary confinement housing units under State law may lose the qualifying diagnosis because of a change in treatment provid- ers, a beneficial response to drugs or therapy, or a period of relative mental stability or lack of symptoms. Additionally, when a person with a long-standing diagnosis in the community first comes into prison, prison-based treatment providers may not take his or her previous mental health records into account or agree with the community provider's diag- nosis, and may misdiagnose the inmate or fail to recognize mental health symptoms that are cyclical in nature.

Inmates who have Axis I mental health disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder or other severe mental illnesses are prone to relapse, vulnerable to stress and are very likely to find themselves in violation of DOCCS rules concerning inmate behavior during periods of active mental illness. If such inmates are not protected by law, they will often wind up in disciplinary confinement in special housing units where they are locked in their cells 23 hours a day, cannot phone home, have limited property, cannot attend programs or religious services, and are generally locked down without stabilizing support systems.

Being labeled as "seriously mentally ill" in the prison system means that an inmate cannot be placed in a solitary confinement unit for more than thirty days but must be placed instead in a residential mental health treatment unit when he or she misbehaves and incurs a discipli- nary sanction.

The purpose of this bills to ensure that inmates with qualifying diag- noses, whether made by 0M11 prison-based staff or community mental health providers, will not be downgraded from the "seriously mentally ill" status that guarantees they will serve any disciplinary sanctions in a treatment unit rather in than solitary confinement. The bill provides that such inmates will go to treatment units even if they have been removed from the OMB caseload or had their diagnosis changed by a later psychiatrist to a non-qualifying diagnosis. It does not affect the ability of the treatment provider to change the diagnosis, but simply protects such vulnerable inmates from being placed in long term solitary confinement. People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not get cured, but with treatment, care and flexibility they can often manage their mental illnesses. Such management is not possible in solitary confinement.

Legislative history

A9421-A reported to ways and means in 2016.

A4037 reported to corrections in 2018.

Fiscal implications

Unknown but appropriate mental health treatment should save the state money in the long run. Additionally, there are currently vacant beds in the treatment units, and with the settlement in Peoples v. Fischer, fewer inmates should have long SHU sanctions, freeing up more treatment beds.

Local fiscal implications

None, the SHU mental health law does not apply to jails.