Lost in the prisons - Penal facilities struggle to deal with mentally ill inmates

Susan Callum, Gleaner intern

For 20 years, Delroy McIntosh has been locked away in correctional facilities - most of that time at the maximum-security Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre. There, he has lived among some of Jamaica's most hardened criminals. But Delroy was never sentenced or tried prior to his two-decade-long imprisonment.

In 1990, Delroy was charged with possession of quarter-pound of ganja by the police in Westmoreland.

When he went to court, the judge suspected that he might have been mentally ill and sent him to the correctional centre for psychiatric evaluation, and treatment, if necessary.

Since that fateful day in June 1990, Delroy has yet to return to court. He is among inmates who are listed as unfit to plead and awaiting trial.

Delroy is just one of the many mentally ill offenders in Jamaica who have been lost in a penal system not equipped to provide proper mental-health care services, and who are not taken to court as stipulated by the law.

Under Section 25 of the Criminal Justice (Administrative) Act, the court is mandated to hold a monthly fitness hearing for all mentally ill offenders it sends into the penal system for evaluation and care.

Not retroactive

This amendment to the Constitution became effective in March 2006. However, the law is not retroactive, and the amendment, therefore, does not apply to mentally ill offenders held in prison before March 2006.

So, for inmates like Delroy, who have been in prison for decades, there is no law to ensure that they are sent back to court. So they easily get lost in the system, especially if there are no relatives eager to have them home or pushing for their release.

They depend on psychiatrists who have to prepare a fitness report for every detained mentally ill offender. These reports are presented at fitness-evaluation hearings when the courts send back for the offender.

But consultant psychiatrist with the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Dr Clayton Sewell, said monthly fitness evaluations are prepared to no end for some mentally ill inmates in the system.

"Many of them who have been there for 10, 20 years have no court date. (They) have no idea when they are going back to court (and) nobody reviews their case. So sometimes it's like you are just going through the formality of doing their evaluation and the court report without the court acting on it," Sewell said.

Gile Campbell, acting commis-sioner of custodial services at the DCS, said he was not aware of any mentally ill person lost in the system.

Lawsuit

Campbell said that had changed following a lawsuit against the State brought by lawyers representing a man who was being held in prison as being unfit to plead.

He was supported by Laura Plunkett, director of offender management in the Ministry of National Security, who claimed that the Government had taken the necessary steps to ensure that no other mentally ill offender gets lost in the system since it lost the lawsuit.

But inmate and orderly at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, Linton Berry, disagrees.

According to Berry, he uses an assistant to keep records on the mentally ill in the prison.

Berry also acts as a lawyer for them. He writes to the clerks of the various courthouses and petitions the governor general on their behalf to get them out of prison.

However, he is facing a hard, long battle, especially when it comes to those still being held at the governor general's pleasure.

The governor general's pleasure sentence is an indefinite sentence given to juveniles who commit crimes, and to mentally ill persons who commit crimes while deluded.

The terms of this sentence calls for the governor general to occasionally review these offenders and decide whether they have become fit for release.

But since the Privy Council ruled in 2003 that the governor general, an executive arm of government, should have no power in matters of the court, the sentence was scrapped in favour of being sentenced at the court's pleasure.

Still, those sentenced at the governor general's pleasure before 2003 are stuck in limbo, allowing them to languish in prison for years.

50 years in the system

Joseph Dunn is one such person, sentenced at the governor general's pleasure since 1960.

Joseph is now 75 years old, losing sight in one eye and walking at a snail's pace. He said the last time he was visited by a relative was some 12 years ago, and since then, he has been left to the mercy and compassion of those around him.

Dr Myo Oo, consultant psychiatrist with the DCS, said prisons are not the proper place to treat mentally ill prisoners.

"Mentally ill persons should not be in prisons because prisons are not the right place to be rehabilitated. In fact, there is no rehabilitative process in prison, and mentally ill inmates rarely partake of social activities," Oo said.

He believes Jamaica is in need of a high-security mental facility to house mentally ill persons who need to be imprisoned or detained.

That high-risk mental facility, Dr Oo hopes, will have staff at a proportionate ratio to the mentally ill, and will be trained in forensic psychology and psychiatry. He also said the facility should have medication to treat a wide range of mental illness.

Susan Callum submitted this piece as a part of her research work while reading for her degree at CARIMAC, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.