US prisoner gouged out eyes after jail denied mental health care, lawsuit says

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Colorado prisoner sues law enforcement, alleging officers ignored acts of self-harm and responded to schizophrenic episodes by beating and tasing him
Sam Levin in San Francisco
@SamTLevin
email
Friday 8 December 2017 17.11 EST

A mentally ill Colorado prisoner gouged his eyes out and became permanently blind after jail officials repeatedly denied him treatment for psychosis despite multiple suicide attempts, according to a lawsuit.

Ryan Partridge, 31, sued Boulder law enforcement officials on Thursday, alleging that while he was jailed for months for minor offenses that were later dismissed, officers ignored numerous acts of self mutilation and responded to delusional episodes by beating and tasing him. Officials also ignored a judge’s emergency order to get Partridge psychiatric treatment, leaving him alone in his cell where he “plucked out his own eyeballs”, the suit said.

His case appears to be a particularly gruesome example of the way Americans with mental illness struggle to get help, and can end up in jails and prisons that punish them with cruel treatment and refuse to provide medical services.

“I hope that things will change, not just for people with mental disorders, but for the people in disciplinary,” Partridge said by phone, explaining how solitary confinement and other punishments exacerbated his mental illness. “Getting tased and beaten, all that is stressful. What can be worse than that is the delusion that arises in isolation.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/08/prisoner-gouges-out-eyes-colorado-boulder-mental-health-lawsuit

[sakabatou]

1. There's so much wrong with our justice system

[ck4829]

2. Oh, the Just Us System is just fine if you have the cash

Ask Ethan Couch for example.

Kind of like how our healthcare system is the best in the world... if you have enough dollars.

[Igel]

3. This is the health care system.

The route taken is the penal system because it provides health care.

One problem with it, though, is that psychiatric beds are a bit scarce, and expensive. Diagnose the guy with psychosis, and while he's out of the penal side of things for a while, they have to find placement for him. And in some news reports placements have taken months, and for all that time the accused/patient is sitting in a jail cell where treatment is far from adequate. ]

It also opens a legal can of worms, because it's easy to have somebody diagnose a citizen with psychosis and forcibly commit him for observation and treatment. It's not always in the patient's best interests, and the diagnosis can be spurious. So we have a huge wall of personal freedom issues that have to be addressed to keep innocent people from being wrongly detained and committed. It makes it time consuming, expensive, and difficult to treat somebody against their will, and many patients reject the idea that they're sick and only decide more rigorous treatment was appropriate after they've been treated and medicated. Until then, they're fighting, and the legal support "defending them" assumes they're clearly sane.

Sometimes I think that we go too far in protecting rights; we see those abused, but we tend not to see those who are left to their own devices. My mother was found incompetent by a judge, but while her lawyer kept her in check during the hearing she seemed normal. The judge said she was about to declare her competent when all the legal niceties had been dealt with--experts' written testimony and evaluation, other records, etc. Then the judge asked her a final question about how the hearing would alter her relationship with her sons. The lawyer couldn't control my mother's words, and 10 minutes later the judge ruled her incompetent, as she clearly was. The system to protect her almost put her in certain jeopardy for her life and well being. The formal goal of the hearing wasn't the truth, but winning, and as soon as winning is the goal the truth is one of the first things sacrificed. Her lawyer said he was relieved--his job was to make sure she was declared competent, but he knew this wasn't the case.

[Sunlei]

4. if this was a dog pound or a person abusing a pet, guards would be charged with crimes & punished