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October 13, 2006
Now that he has seen and heard the evidence, U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen in Kalamazoo ought to extend the court's oversight of medical care in Jackson prisons to mental health care as well. The Aug. 6 death of Timothy Joe Souders, a 21-year-old mentally ill inmate, along with other cases, shows that the Department of Corrections can't improve medical care without related changes in mental health treatment, and better communication between mental health, medical, custody and treatment staff.
Unfortunately, improvements will come only through outside pressure, including multimillion-dollar lawsuits, an independent review ordered by the governor, and more federal oversight.
In three days of hearings before Enslen that end today, court-appointed monitor Dr. Robert Cohen described the Aug. 17 death in Jackson of a delusional 43-year-old inmate from hypothyroidism. Cohen called the inmate's condition a "very treatable illness" that went untreated for years.
In other evidence presented by prisoners' attorneys, parts of an unsealed prison videotape showed some of Souders' last four days in gripping detail. Souders died after spending most of that time strapped down in a hot isolation cell, naked and soaked in his own urine.
"Everyone dropped the ball," said expert witness Dr. Jerry Walden. Corrections has been under a federal consent decree in a case called Hadix since 1985 to improve medical care and other conditions at state prisons in Jackson. Enslen ended the mental health provisions in January 2001, but recent findings suggest neither mental health nor medical care in Michigan prisons meets constitutional standards.
Enslen can help assure that they do by placing prison mental health care under the court's oversight.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.
