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N.Y. Advocacy Group Files Suit on
Behalf of Mentally Ill Prisoners
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John
Caher
New York Law
Journal
05-30-2002
Three nonprofit advocacy
groups assisted pro bono by Manhattan's Davis Polk & Wardwell on
Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit accusing New York state of denying
mentally ill inmates appropriate care.
The lawsuit,
Disability Advocates Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental
Health, alleges that the Office of Mental Health and the
Department of Correctional Services have displayed such a deliberate
indifference to the needs of mentally ill prisoners that the Eighth
Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment is routinely
violated. It alleges that the state's inability or unwillingness to
address prisoners' mental health needs results in a deterioration of
their condition, sometimes to the point of suicide.
Although
other litigation has been commenced on behalf of individual
prisoners, this is apparently the first to take on the prison system
as a whole. It underscores the difficulty, both legally and
penalogically, of dealing with a prison population that is
increasingly recognized as prone to mental illness.
"This is
a system-wide program, and it has to be addressed system wide," said
Nina Loewenstein, a staff attorney with Disability Advocates in
Albany, N.Y.
Loewenstein said that the New York State prison
population has tripled over the last 20 years, with a corresponding
increase in prisoners suffering from serious mental illnesses. Yet
mental health staff and other resources have failed to keep pace
with the increase, she said. Loewenstein is co-counsel on the
complaint, along with: Sarah Kerr of the Prisoners' Rights Project
of the Legal Aid Society; Betsy Sterling, associate director of
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York; and Jennifer H. Reardon of
Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Plaintiffs claim that at least
16,000 of the state's 67,000 prisoners suffer from significant
mental illnesses. However, they said that too often the prison
system responds to mental illness by placing inmates in special
housing or other disciplinary confinements. They contend that
problem inmates with psychiatric illnesses are often isolated, and
that isolation and "near total lack of human contact" exacerbates
their condition and results in a "cycle of torment" for prisoners
who are incapable of conforming to prison regimen.
"The
stringent conditions of isolated confinement are simply inhumane,"
said Kerr. "They cause mentally ill prisoners to psychiatrically
deteriorate and contribute to a significant number of prisoner
suicides."
SUPREME COURT CASES
The complaint
alleges that for each year from 1998 through 2001, between 30
percent and 50 percent of the system-wide suicides involved the
population (about 8 percent) kept in special housing. It seeks
injunctive relief in the form of additional services and resources
for the psychiatric prison population. The suit alleges violations
of the Eighth and 14th Amendments and the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
Legally, the matter is likely to turn
largely on three U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
In Estelle
v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), the Court found that states could
be held liable for damages to an inmate who shows a "deliberate
indifference" to his or her medical needs. Then, in 1982 the Court
addressed the issue of non-criminals in state custody when it said
in Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, that authorities must be
afforded the leeway to exercise their own "professional judgment."
The Court in 1994 adopted a high standard for "deliberate
indifference." In Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, the
justices said that prison officials may be held liable only upon a
showing that they knew of a substantial risk facing inmates and
failed to take reasonable remedial measures. It said the proper
standard for evaluating such claims is recklessness, not mere
negligence.
Even under that standard, however, the
plaintiffs in this case claim the state's conduct in dealing with
mentally ill prisoners falls far short of what is legally required.
Officials with the Department of Correctional Services and Office of
Mental Health both declined comment Tuesday.
"The
appropriate place for us to respond to a lawsuit is the courtroom,"
said James Flateau of Correctional Services.
U.S. District
Judge Gerard E. Lynch of the Southern District of New York has been
assigned the case.
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