Organizations

Mental Health Association in New York State

MHANYS and its affiliate network work to promote mental health and recovery, encourage empowerment in mental health service recipients, eliminate discrimination, raise public awareness with education, and advocate for equality and opportunity for all.

SAMHSA

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.

 Publications

Old Behind Bars

Published by the Human Rights

Excerpt:

Life in prison can challenge anyone, but it can be particularly hard for people whose bodies and minds are being whittled away by age. Prisons in the United States contain an ever growing number of aging men and women who cannot readily climb stairs, haul
themselves to the top bunk, or walk long distances to meals or the pill line; whose old bones suffer from thin mattresses and winter’s cold; who need wheelchairs, walkers, canes, portable oxygen, and hearing aids; who cannot get dressed, go to the bathroom, or bathe without help; and who are incontinent, forgetful, suffering chronic illnesses, extremely ill, and dying.

Know Your Right to Adequate Medical Care

Published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, this chapter of A Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual describes in detail the rights prisoners have to receive medical care.

Articles

Breast Cancer Behind Bars: How a prison sentence can become a death sentence

Author: Victoria Law

Date: January 25, 2012

Source: TruthOut

Excerpt: Imagine finding a lump in your breast. Imagine that your efforts to schedule a medical check-up are stymied and you have to wait weeks, if not months, for that initial exam. In the meantime, the lump continues to grow. Imagine that, when you finally do see a doctor, you are told that you have breast cancer. When you walk out of the office, you are locked into your prison cell with no more information or sympathy than when you walked in. This is the daily reality for women in prison.

When jail inmates have special needs: Prisoners with mental illness or drug or alcohol problems have new wing

Author: Dayelin Roman

Date: April 19, 2011

Source: Times Union

Excerpt: Prisoners with mental illness or drug and alcohol addictions are being housed in a new unit at the Albany County jail built specifically to address their problems. At the end of February, the jail opened two identical units specially suited for the mentally ill. The project was expected to cost $13 million, but the facilities were built for $11 million.

For Mentally Ill Inmates, health care behind bars is often out of reach 

Author: Elizabeth Chuck

Source: MSNBC

Excerpt: A man who was declared suicidal by a New Mexico jail and alleges he was then left to rot in solitary confinement for nearly two years is just one of many former inmates who say they were denied essential mental health services while incarcerated at that detention center, which like others across the country has struggled with how to treat the mentally ill.

Legislation

Stopping the Spread of disease in Prisons

YNN reports the two proposed bills to stop the spread of Aids in New York State Prisons.  One in the Assembly that focuses on education and another in the Senate that would allow condom distribution.

Multimedia

Prison Voices: Billy McCarthy talks about Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness

Podcast: McCarthy discusses the consequences of solitary confinement on the mentally ill by talking about his brother’s experience.