Prisoner Gets 97-Year Sentence For Mental Illness Symptoms
(American Civil Liberties Union)
September 30, 2011
TAMMS, ILLINOIS– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily] Anthony Gay was sentenced to an incredible 97 years in prison for throwing feces out his food slot, behavior experts characterize as symptomatic for severely mentally ill people held in solitary confinement. Yesterday the ACLU joined the National Disability Rights Network, Mental Health America and many others in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in Gay's appeal, calling the sentence "an unconscionable and shocking criminalization of his mental illness."
Anthony's story is a tragic, but all too common, tale in our criminal justice system, where the severely mentally ill are routinely held in solitary confinement for months, years and even decades — their condition, and the punishment for it, worsening.
Anthony originally entered prison on a low-level charge after violating probation on a seven year suspended sentence. Had he been able to conform to prison rules, he should have served three-and-a-half years in prison. Unfortunately, Gay's mental illness led to bizarre and disturbing behaviors. Rather than treating his mental illness, officials punished him repeatedly for his symptoms; his security level was raised and he was increasingly banished to solitary confinement.
Eventually Gay was sent to Illinois' "supermax" prison, Tamms Correctional Center, reserved supposedly for the "worst of the worst." Subjected to 23 hours or more of isolation a day in a small cell with little to no human contact, Gay repeatedly tried to commit suicide and began to engage in horrific self-mutilation . . . Yet he was still not given meaningful psychiatric evaluation or treatment.
Entire article:
97 Years in Prison for a Mentally Ill Man Who Threw Feces
http://tinyurl.com/3jcdjw5
Related:
Inmate wants out of Tamms; attorney says years of solitary confinement harmed his mental health (Belleville News-Democrat)
http://tinyurl.com/3k33nc7
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