Prisoners with mental illness in S.C. state prisons are being subjected to horrific abuse and neglect, sometimes ending in death.
Mental health advocates in S.C. are urging the state prison system to follow a judge’s order and draw up a detailed plan within 180 days to reform the S.C. Department of Corrections mental illness programs – even if Corrections appeals the judge’s decision.
The judge found that " .... inmates have died in the S.C. Department of Corrections for lack of basic mental health care ... Hundreds more remain substantially at risk for serious physical injury, mental decompensation, and profound, permanent mental illness.”
This must stop. Mentally ill people have the same basic rights we all do, prisoner or not.