ACLU Sues Pennsylvania Over Treatment of Mentally Ill Detainees

By Wilson Dizard, Al Jazeera America

26 October 15

Civil rights group sues state amid rising nationwide concerns about mistreatment and deaths of mentally ill detainees

he American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing  the state of Pennsylvania to seek relief for hundreds of accused criminals who have been deemed mentally ill but haven’t received timely psychiatric treatment in prison, where they await trial.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, which brought the lawsuit on Wednesday, says that due to an administrative backlog many of the detainees have spent hundreds of days in prison without adequate mental health care.

Mentally ill detainees in Pennsylvania prisons spend an average of 397 days in custody before receiving treatment, representing the longest wait time in the United States, according to the ACLU. Federal requirements state that detainees start receiving treatment no more than seven days after being found by a court to be incompetent to stand trial.

Many of the mentally ill detainees suffer from severe illnesses and their crimes are often minor, according to the ACLU. The case’s lead plaintiff, a schizophrenic identified as J.H., spent 340 days in jail on charges of stealing three peppermint patties, a type of candy.

“These are in some ways the most vulnerable people in society,” said David Gersch, an attorney with Arnold and Porter LLP, a law firm working with ACLU of Pennsylvania on the case.

Such delays “would never happen, except these people are poor and no one cares about them. It’s been going on for years.”   source