Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities

In Our Own Words

Hurricane Irene Aftermath
Hurricane Irene came and went. The city for the most part feels a sense of relief. Some even believe there was too much hype. But the fact remains that the inmates on Rikers Island did not have an evacuation plan despite the Mayors statement that Rikers was safe and was not in danger. This total disregard for prisoner safety shows that our beloved government has once again lied and purposely ignored certain groups of people.low income people, people of color, and those with a mental diagnosis. Most of the population, which we know, makes up the majority of inmates on Rikers Island. In addition to the exposed truths of the countless abuses by Correction Officers on inmates, suicides from the torture of being in Solitary confinement (The Bing), to inmates being served rotten food, we have yet uncovered another issue regarding the hell hole which is called Rikers Island. It is shocking that in a time of natural disaster or emergency, the 13,000 prisoners on Rikers have no adequate safety precautions. To think that officers are dedicated or heroic enough to stay and save inmates is ridiculous. Documented proof tells us that their specialty is to degrade; torture and abusenot nurture and/ or save lives. When we called Shevon Stewart, an employee on Rikers and asked her what was going on with Rikers Island regarding the evacuation process she blatantly responded oh we good. Professionalism at its best? Norman Seabrook President of the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association himself admitted being afraid for his workers because there was only one way off the island,. His statement tells us that if workers were in dangerthen inmates were in even more danger. Keeping inmates uninformed about safety measures in a time of crisis creates more of an intense sense of pending doom and unrest. Now that the wind and rain and uncertainty of Hurricane Irene have passed, one thing remains crystal clear. The city of New York and the Bloomberg administration do not feel inmates lives are of equal value as other human beings. The fact still remains that there is a definite need for a plan of action regarding Rikers Island.

Rikers Island, NYC

Justice, Not Jails...

A new, unjust, and gruesome mental health institution has been slowly and quietly growing across the nation: our jails and prisons. Over the past several decades, the number of incarcerated individuals with a diagnosed mental illness has continually risen. In fact, Rikers Island and the Los Angeles County Jail are the two largest providers of mental health services in the nation. Despite clear advances in recognizing and accepting mental illness in the media (many programs depict the problems associated with it), in health care (where patients are no longer shunned), and in the workplace (where workers with disabilities, including alcoholism, are offered treatment), our criminal justice system continues to oppress those who are most in need.

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Justice, Not Jails cont'd...

Sick people are punished, not treated, resulting in the further victimization of a highly vulnerable and stigmatized population. As people with psychiatric disabilities who are or have been imprisoned, members of Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities (RIPPD) know firsthand the horrors that exist behind prison walls. Paul* was diagnosed with bipolar illness in 1991. In 1996, he was arrested for two D crimes (the lowest category of felony) as result of a manic episode. Instead of taking into account Pauls bipolar diagnosis (often D crimes can been reduced to misdemeanors), the judge sentenced him to 4 to 20 years, a term usually reserved for someone who has committed a severe offense. He is now serving his 12th year in the New York State correctional system. Although medication and limited therapy are available, prison is the worst place to put a person with a bipolar condition. The correction officers in the New York State prison system, even those assigned to units dealing with people with psychiatric illness, are not trained to deal with the mentally ill or recognize the symptoms of a psychiatric condition, so they inflict harsh punishment either through physical violence or Tier III tickets, which result in long terms of solitary confinement. Paul continues to suffer enormously in prison. Since its inception in 2003, RIPPD has been involved in many campaigns to end the criminalization of mental illness. RIPPD members were instrumental in convincing the Republican-controlled New York State Senate to pass legislation (S.02207C) banning the use of solitary confinement for people with serious mental illness in New York State prisons. In 2008, Governor David Patterson signed the bill, which will go into effect in 2011. RIPPD has also been at the forefront of a community effort to stop the building of a jail in the Bronx. RIPPD has been instrumental in getting the Bronx Borough president and the correction commissioner to meet with the community. Until RIPPD brought media attention to the issue, both officials had avoided meeting with the community. The borough president, along with the entire Bronx delegation, which includes City Council members as well as State Assembly members and state senators who represent the Bronx, has since agreed to take a public stance against the building of the jail, and the correction commissioner has held several community meetings to discuss his proposal. After two years of community organizing around this issue, the Department of Correction decided not to build a jail in Hunts Point. Since then, RIPPD has continued to organize around the issue of jail expansion in New York City and has blocked subsequent plans for jail expansion in the Bronx. With the recent resignation of Department of Correction Commissioner Martin Horn, the citys proposal for jail expansion is at a standstill. In response to recent incidents with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) including the death of Iman Morales, a 35-year-old man with mental illness, as a result of being tasered by police, RIPPD has been organizing to ensure that the NYPD adopts a pre-booking jail diversion model such as Community Crisis Intervention Teams, so that people with mental illness receive treatment, not jail time. To date, RIPPD has met with commanding officers of several precincts in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan as well as executives at 1 Police Plaza. These meetings have given RIPPD an opportunity to demand change from individual precincts as well as the NYPD as a whole. RIPPD has discussed in each meeting the details of its Community Crisis Intervention Teams. These proposed teams would not only provide expanded mental health training for police officers (i.e., signs and symptoms of mental illness and de-escalation techniques) but, more important, would provide a system of accountability and community involvement so that all parties involved (people with mental illness, the larger NYC community, and the NYPD) are best served. Recent media coverage exposing conditions in prisons has provided an opportunity for widespread reforms. It is now the responsibility of the public, mental health and criminal justice advocates, and our public policy makers to ensure that necessary reforms are made in order to end the injustice that is occurring in jails and prisons throughout the United States. *Not his real names

RIPPD holds monthly membership meetings on the first Tuesday of every month from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at 123 William Street 16th Floor (Manhattan)