[Music] they are schizophrenic try to kill myself about 17 times paranoid this is a plot by government and psychotic thoring me out leave me for loss but they are not in Mental Hospitals they are in prison prisons have become the new asylums the new state mental hospital facilities tonight Frontline takes an unprecedented Journey inside one of America's largest prison systems once they get out of control you do have to use force on them and investigates the Stark reality of locking thousands of the mentally ill Behind Bars the attitude has been you lock people away and they're no longer a problem prison is simply not the place to provide mental health care why have America's prisons become the new [Music] asylums you know I didn't get your name my name's Alex what's yours Jesse par from corala on the other side three courses 450° molecule 3175 away from lther okay are you giving me directions yeah I'm giving you five okay hey Javon yes are you on medications that you're not that you haven't taken today uh yes yes you did or no I did not okay are you out of them are you yes I am what apartment do you live in Apartment 18 Apartment 18 yes 18 very good who do you live there with [Music] um I said there by myself okay do you have a phone at your house no okay if something happened where you need to get hold of family in an emergency yes who would you call I would call [Music] uh nobody really I don't have any family right now do you have a brother or a sister a mother a father no I do not an aunt or an uncle that may be able to help you today no okay where are you from what what city I from I don't know brother scenes like this have have become all too familiar throughout America as the nation's Psychiatric Hospital shut down police departments everywhere were left to handle the growing number of mentally ill on the streets watch your head coming up here open door I can't let you in you guys are going to kill me and all that she thought we was going to kill her your name why' she why'd she think that you know she's CRA H was tell she just offer meds so you guys just going to do a voluntary thing in that she's she said the go she wants to go once you had hundreds of thousands of people leaving the Mental Hospitals they suddenly obviously didn't become mentally healthy they went to the streets they became homeless and then they eventually began the cycle into the system that cannot say no you ever considered or attempted suicide do you plan to harm yourself now or while you're incarcerated most of them are nonviolent crimes uh they they crimes against property the petty theft out of the the local 7-Eleven store even a criminal trespass a person with a mental issue goes in there to try and get Shelter From The Elements outside and they they start acting up and uh the property owner you know calls the police and then as soon as the police step in uh they end up bringing them to jail and and here we go [Music] Hallelujah today there are nearly 5 100,000 mentally ill being held in jails and prisons throughout America that's 10 times the 50,000 that remain in psychiatric hospitals I want to see the doctor to get my mask get out of my face you this massive incarceration of inmates with severe mental illness has created enormous problems for prisons across the country there was a failure in society there was no safety net for all of these persons who were no longer being being treated by mental health agencies and as a result many of those persons who would have been in state hospitals are now in state prisons so in addition to being the director of the Department of Corrections I became a de facto director of a major mental health system Ohio corrections officials agreed to give Frontline unprecedented access to their prison system to see firsthand the difficulties of coping with the thousands of mentally ill inmates in their [Music] custody just feel like I'm suffering man feel like I'm suffering every day I just feel like I'm suffering I feel like I'm just I'm just in a in a in a in a locked a little a real small locked room and no matter how much I kick on the door no matter how much I scream man on nobody hear me man what about you Mr Simmons they say I'm paranoise schizophonic are you on Force medication yeah what medications you on this is group therapy at the Maximum Security Prison in Lucasville Ohio too didn't like uh a lot of things I seen in my childhood a lot of things I seen in my household start having hate inside of me come here man let me see your arms bring me I haven't got to see what's new all these these yep what this this new yeah what drove you to this point man last time I seen you was doing good I just the bottom dropped out and I just couldn't think of nothing else 16% of our prison population in the state of Ohio which reflects basically a national average are persons who've been diagnosed with a mental illness which means that they require uh an awful lot of attention many of them require hospitalization they require uh major regimens of of psychiatric medications and they are a population that would be at risk U not only in the institutions but when they leave the confines of our Correctional s Ohio spent the last decade reforming their system and is now considered a model for providing Mental Health Care behind bars I said can we get a witness can we hear the Bible verse up there Reverend Jack back we've had inmates bang his head on the wall scream shout yell kicking the doors kicking the bars that go on forever throwing human waste on the Range that's something that happens regular and uh somebody knew that would come in here and experience something like that uh they probably W turn right back around and leave say I don't want to come back in this place but uh I mean you get used to it after a while in Ohio mentally ill inmates are separated from the prison's general population and housed in mental health units where they can be treated you have to have a little more patience here you have to have a lot more patience here not a little because it gets pretty frustrating at times have to tell somebody to do something three four five six times before they do it a lot of them simply don't understand the rules if they're paranoid about something you know that they think somebody's out to get them it's just a different world in here than it is in the rest of the prison this is another world inside of the [Applause] world you have this population of seriously mentally ill and simply keeping them locked up isn't going to do any good for the inmates themselves or for the prison so you bring the treatment part of it into it and maybe this is the first time some of these guys have received treatment uh we have medication here we have the psychiatrists here we have nurses here 24 hours a day and some of the guys here probably have not had that level of care maybe not ever in their lives now you haven't heard voices no but um you do have some special abilities right yeah mental telepathy yeah which is different than voices yes a lot different a lot more friendlier mhm yeah and um who's the main person that you have telepathy with the main one is Miss Hillary Clinton now and then the next one is George Bush then I talk to Miss op Winford some time how is she friendly to you just the power builder of my all well-being we've projected about 25 or 30% of those individuals that have a chronic mental illness will always need someone making sure that they take their medication having somebody mediate in terms of inner personal relationships that they might have with staff as well as have with other inmates having a population or environment where people understand that illness and yet keep in mind what the security needs arec and I say what the I want my any one of you and I'll rap all you every want your light on what you want your light on hell yeah not with is this what you wanted me to have okay and this is what we've been talking about on numerous occasions you want PC because you don't feel safe Benny Anthony a paranoid schizophrenic has spent much of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals in 1987 within weeks of being released he had a paranoid episode and set his girlfriend's house on Fire protective protective custody I will comfortable but you're kind of like in protective custody remember we discussed this Mr Anthony but I'm on protective custody you're in your own cell I won't protective custody all right I won't protect the custody cuz I'm scar okay and what are you afraid of do you want Anthony has believed for years that people are trying to kill him they was from Texas it's coming out of Texas some of them have syringes of the poison electric electric battery battery power vots on them where they can pierce your heart or your stomach and uh some of them have wooden wooden and bats like and uh guns ah I say the r Super has just woke up I okay Eric what do you got looks like a busy weekend um starting Friday inmate Taylor down in j4 tried to hang himself they put him upstairs on a on a watch each morning the mental health staff meets to discuss inmates who are in crisis inmate Waller was placed on observation status for possible psychosis he has not been met compliant with his respir doll all weekend okay anything else on any of these folks there are at least two others that are on their way here that have put toothbrushes up under the skin and their arm um the difference is that Taylor had two toothbrushes up his arm and they only able to retrieve one the other one started to scoot up out of sight so they they're just monitoring that at the present time that when inmates need acute care they're brought here to the prison infirmary they told you brought me up here on constant watch cuz uh they was afraid I was going to do something and they thought I was either going to try to uh kill myself or sever seriously hurt myself again I I think my medicine need changed You' already decided to do that it might take a few more days for that to take effect for you so we'll talk to you some more later on and see how that's progressing for you hey Waller you seem kind of upset I'd be willing to talk to you and maybe we can resolve all this the resolve what and I was doing fine I'm working in the kitchen and this and that and I I go see this whatever this other PS doctor is and have you not been taking your medication is that true I don't feel I need it so providing effective uh psychiatric care in our Maximum Security Prison is extraordinarily difficult many patients decompensate and become extremely depressed hopeless suicidal many turn to severe self mutilation or acts of self-injury and many uh inmates that also suffer from severe mental illness become delusional and hallucinate than can you hear me Robert Bankston a paranoid schizophrenic was brought to the infirmary when he became psychotic and started banging his head against the wall thr him over r151 686 the nurse states that he's having a psychic episode medication has been administered at this time have officers restrained an inmate on the gurnie as become necessary to do so it'll be placed uh on the cell 18 D1 infirmary placing restraints I've dealt with Bankston in crisis a couple of times and I think the biggest problem that we had with him was complying with the medicine that we were trying to provide for him he would just take it whenever he felt like it sometimes he wouldn't then perhaps when he became sicker is when he decided to not take it anymore which seems to be the normal course for a lot of the mental old people they start getting sicker and they think it's the medicine that's making them sicker and they quit taking the medicine and if they're not a mandated medicine then they continue to U decompensate further theic medical staff decided to keep Bankston in the crisis unit on constant watch but he continued to refuse all the officer orders to Cuff up so the prison's Special Response Team was called in Bon giving you a direct order to step up here turn around so handcuffs could be applied he was also given emergency medication to help with that possible psychosis at approximately 710 I went down to check inmates file to to ensure that chemical agent can be used done them I'll be here to monitor use of force also phras that be Shield I think the first thing that people should realize is that the prison doesn't exist to provide mental health treatment the prison exists to provide security and safety to the community offer lower right and so you have to be realistic if there's an inmate even though he's sick refuses to come out of his cell refuses to allow officers to inspect their property refuses to comply with orders and stands fast to that eventually that inmate is going to do what they're told whether they want to or not give you another direct order step up here Bankston guys [Applause] ready what pleasee [Music] pleaseeeee sir sir please [Music] soon after this crisis Bankston was placed on mandated meds and forced to take his medication until his condition stabilized I snatched the purse back in 1989 if I have knew I was going to have to go through all this boy I wouldn't believe me I would have never snatched no purse but um yeah this classified as a robbery because of his long history of psychotic and aggressive behavior Robert Bankston has served much of his time at the Maximum Security Prison many severely manal inmates have come into prison either on minor violations of the law or on parl violations and they were previously in a minimum or a medium security prison and because those prisons have their own strict rules and guidelines and expectations of compliance with security uh protocols those inmates with serious mental illness just can't follow the rules appropriately they're frightened they're scared they're paranoid they're anxious they're pacing they're Restless they don't take their medications and then they filter down to prison like this which is kind of like the basement for the severely mentally ill in Ohio concerned that too many mentally ill inmates were ending up at its Maximum Security Prison Ohio began to take mental illness into account in their disciplinary process the biggest change that we started to pay attention to uh when we looked at certain kinds of behaviors prisoners were demonstrating uh that may have been psychiatric but it may not have been we wanted to understand the theory and I'm not trying to be crass here the difference between mad and bad you know we wanted to know if if behavior that resembled deviant Behavior was related to just a criminal kinds of activities or if it was induced by some mental illness you're in trouble have to wait if few all right Michael shes in prison for aggravated robbery was diagnosed with bipolar disorder he was recently charged with spitting on an officer before his disciplinary hearing shes is meeting with a mental health counselor if mental illness is found to play a significant role in his misconduct the charges can be dropped so the big issue is about the officer is accusing you of spitting on him see what it was was walks my he grabs the back of my jump so he throws me on the ground I was trying to get off me I didn't do nothing while you disagree with what he said you do remember the incident not spitting on right but you do remember the in yeah cuz he said to me do you spit I said I don't spit con yeah on in here they're starting lunch already Michael Khan in prison for rape began to yell when he couldn't reach his parents on the telephone he threw his glasses on the ground and emptied his shampoo bottle all over his cell case numbers 24368 state your name and number for record Michael David KH 23469 con how do you plead to rule 18 guilty con at this time the committee is going to allow you to make a statement Dr Mar Dr Martin was uh going to keep me on level two for one year our soul and uh get special permission from Steve Dylan to have my TV as well as my fan trimers and myself while being on level to till I show some improvement what happened I ignored the fact but the M are not realizing the fact con what does that have to do with this conduct report what I want to know is what took place during the time of this conduct report I don't want to know what happened when he was talking to Dr Martin Michael Khan was found guilty of creating a disturbance and destroying State Property although he could have been sent to segregation his only punishment was to have his phone privileges revoked and Michael shrieves was also found guilty it was his 18th rule violation this year and he was sent to segregation that uh I see a proo board in March of 2005 if an inate spits or refuses to hand back his food tray or curse is an officer or doesn't cuff up when the officer says put your hands out cuff up if that person was in a hospital setting that would be considered acting out or symptomatic of the illness in a prison system that's considered I'm telling you to Cuff up or I'm going to write you up they write them up they go before a tribunal a disciplinary tribunal they're found guilty and they're sent to segregation probably the worst thing that could happen to them and to the assistant but that's what happens that's what [Music] [Applause] happens it gets to the point where there's no there's nothing else can be done you're going to have to lock them up in segregation they have to be locked up and removed from the area or it's going to cause it's just going to ask escalate going to cause a bigger problem the block and then you kind of lose control of everything in the block a lot of the mentally ill inmates that are in here you got to use more I mean you do have to use force on them this it just seems that way to me it does anyway because once they get out and then then they get out once they reach that level that're out of control you know then they need to they need to be uh secured come on no Don this is your last [Applause] chance okay I W okay you what I'm not since entering prison in 1981 Donnie Hall convicted of rape has had a ter terrible record of misconduct that has sent him to segregation nearly a 100 times he has cut himself spit on officers thrown urine and feces and flooded his cell when the staff at Lucasville can no longer handle his behavior their final option is to send him to the prison psychiatric hospital Oakwood Correctional Facility was built on the grounds of one of Ohio's abandoned State asylums here inmates are treated more like patients than prisoners this is the 18th time Donnie Hall has been sent to Oakwood people down here know how to help me you know how to give me the white medicate I I don't have to be lock down all day to go to the gym being a day one all day down the din want to eat that more freed I feel the whole lot calm and more better don't feel upset no more not doing a whole lot better be a whole lot better every aspect of your life from eating your meal to Recreation to treatment is all centered around attempting to stabilize the mental illness it's a 24-hour treatment environment like any other Hospital in the community up up these all mine Sigman Clark convicted of Rob Roby has been in and out of prison for nearly 20 years and has been hospitalized at Oakwood many times yeah cut C he became so delusional that he was convinced officers were trying to kill him and to rid himself of the poison he started drinking water from his cell toilet the colors go down the same way yeah yeah yeah the same the same way I went to like seven eight institutions in them 12 years to a point Behavior will go up and down they will change my security level and it will go up and down and I would do better sometime I had to go to a higher security if I done worse sometime I had to go to a low security if I done better but I still had this disease mental illness regardless of what is happening to me although Clark's Behavior has improved significantly while oak wood he cannot stay indefinitely it's just not intended to be anything other than a turn around Hospital get you back to your environment and it has a mission shortterm acute care stabilized we we're not saying you're better we're saying you're stabilized and you go back good morning ladies and gentlemen we were discussing you before you came in Mr Clark and we think you have done wonderful in here so we thinking of sending you back to look as well what is your idea question is is that in my best behalf at this time we think so yes you have adjusted beautifully well to the level of medication there's been absolutely no side effects whatsoever quite frankly you've been an exemplary patient people don't go to the hospital stay forever they stay as long as they need to be there clinically we feel that you have improved to the point that you cannot start functioning in a manner that's okay for you back in your system your delusions are way down you're not hallucinating you go to groups you have go directed conversations in other words you do real well at the function do I do well in another set see no reason why you can't give it a try a lot of it's up to you don't you want to C with better options I want a better day every 24 hours true after 90 days at Oakwood Sigman Clark was sent back to the Maximum Security Prison in Lucasville good afternoon ladies and gentlemen good afternoon ladies and gentl you don't lost weight you days now yeah back each time he has returned to the prison's mental health unit Clark's condition has deteriorated and he's ended up back in the prison infirmary it was GL because I know I'm coming down a road of isolation now you just stuck in a cell with all kind of thoughts going through your head now I need a pillow and some toilet paper one I'll try to stick it out by one taking it one day at a time doing the best each day and hoping that the next day is wider I think basically this is home to him getting to the point where the treatment that they're going to receive in prison it's pretty much all it's left it's pretty ironic a they have have to be locked in prison probably to get better mental health treatment they they can get if they were free at Lucasville the mental health staff struggled for nearly four years to manage and treat jacuba Lewis's schizophrenia if you had seen jakuba Lewis several years ago when he was incessantly hallucinating and really struggling one would think there's really no hope for this person but thankfully even though we're here we've been able to treat him very effectively and his behavior stabilized to the point where he was able to be conduct report free I believe for over a year which is really remarkable in a real strict environment where you're expected to follow the rules essentially irrespective of what your limitations are jacuba Lewis was transferred out of the Maximum Security Prison to a lower security prison in Orient Ohio on left side hallway stay inside the [Music] L unfortunately I do believe that some of the mental health treatment that we provide in prisons is better than what one might get in the community I've actually had a judge mentioned to me before that you know we hate to do this but we know the person will get treated if we send this person to prison when you know that the courts are more apt to cend a person to prison because they're going to get treated there's something disconcerting about [Music] that it's easier to do all of them on three than go up to two and still have how you doing over here yes Lewis is meeting with his new mental health Team to discuss his ongoing treatment is your mental illness have something to do with your crime yes can you share how because when I was on the street right before iau my case I was real like have you ever heard of somebody said Dark Cloud come over their head strange things was happening but I really didn't know what it was people was talk to me and tell somebody say something but they really not but back then I couldn't tell Tru cuz I didn't know what schizophr was I didn't even know know I had I didn't know nothing about it I thought it was real well do you feel comfortable telling me what the crime was oh I was down for I had I had murder I killed two people and at that that point in time you thought they were the enemy or yes thought they was trying to kill me because it was the way that the whole day was going the last four years um I've been learning more about it so I I know how to to handle him a little better but I'm I'm still not to the point where I can control it um but I haven't had a say kind of episode in a long time while jacoba Lewis believes the treatment he received in prison has made him better other inmates believe that prison has made them worse being locked up in prison it does affect your mental well-being it's just like these environmental factors which must be which I I continually say must be considered um before one is is given some diagnosis some Mis diagnosis or or some drug saying that's supposed to be a cure all I'm saying let's find out what's really going on for us and being in prison that's one problem what's all this for I said no use of force is necessary mhm convicted initially for burglary Carl mcran returned to prison in 1988 when he violated his parole by stealing a bicycle for nearly a decade mcan's iary problems led him to spiral down through the Ohio prison system from medium security to maximum security and eventually to the supermax he was the type of individual that was very difficult to work with because in the past he had been very aggressive toward staff including I Believe by spitting on staff members and filling body waste and so there wasn't a lot of empathy for him there wasn't a lot of people going to bat for him and people weren't saying we really need to help this person the tendency would be for somebody like that is just let's lock him away you know if this person's going to behave like that let's let's just not have anything to do with him before we had the system in place that we do now that type of individual would would still be in segregation and they would probably never get out of segregation N I don't want to me anymore say oh [Music] man who are you being involved in solitary situation being placed in solit solitary situation is like is like being placed in the prison's prison and that's that's worse than simply being taken from society and placed in prison theob illegally if you're mentally ill when you go into segregation you're going to become worse invariably if you're you're not mentally ill the risk of becoming mentally ill is very high from isolation some people dispute that but in my experience the people who are so unsocialized and so psychologically fragile to to begin with are deprived of any kind of social support any kind of psychological stimulus and they just they just fall apart kicking me McAn spent years in solitary confinement and eventually his psychological problems became obvious he didn't speak for nearly a year he began crawling down the cell block on his hands and knees he told officers that there were cameras in his eyes it seemed like a hopeless situation because as just I was just going down is for falling into this this abis or how would you pronounce it Abyss Abyss okay and it's like you're you're that's it it's like a say is there everybody there you say hell you I'm saying and it's it's it's really there's hopeless girl mcran has been in prison for over 16 years because of his disciplinary problems he never became eligible for parole and has been held 13 years beyond the sentencing guidelines for his crime I see the pro board next month and it's there is some hope there that I hope they actually do release me I hope this is I hope they do I really do because this my last year of really feeling really having this hope I'm not going to go off or anything like that but I just hope they they do really consider what's going on one of these Mur my godam mother and they my godamn wife and that's why they TR now I'm not playing Jesus anymore I showed you Jesus I was bother the man about that I got the two pillars in my room for mentally ill inmates obtaining parole is almost always difficult got a parole BO date uh next month I hope I'm hoping they'll let me go I just tell that uh I've been incarcerated for 16 years and uh have all remorse for things I've done and uh I know I'm mental but I'm not incompetent and I know that uh I know that I can really function on the outside and uh I wish and hope that they would give me a a roll no all right fellas first two take those far end ones first two Owens down to that first two right here while most inmates hope to be released Jerry Tharp who was granted parole after a 10year sentence for robbery doesn't want to leave prison you know I'm trying to you know my release is coming quicker and uh I'm trying to stop that because uh it'll it'll help us all I know you said you had some concerns in treatment team for treatment team yeah and I've and I've said that uh about every treatment team that I I've uh went to and still nothing's becoming of it and U Know You no do you have other plans when you get out then yeah I have other plans and uh you know the the the the sane mind that I'm in now and the sanity that I still have says uh that that's not you know right to go through with those plans and innocent people will be uh hurt and murdered and you know also people will be hurt and murdered so go ahead and stop your parole you know work with the system of things which I've learned and you know well understand insightfully so now I've been locked up you know for so long that you know I I have a fear of going directly to society because you know the in here in prison Life's a lot simpler and uh everything is on a tight schedule and I've learned that out in society the you know the world of so well Society it's uh it's a lot bigger and more complicated a little bit more scarier and I'm trying to stop my release from you know prison to go to society so what would you do with you put me off in some uh government state hospital and uh take a p you know labotomy I think is what they called it and I don't know I think in some states it's still legal here you know thorine me out what I mean by that is over medicate me with thorine and just leave me in a room to sleep uh my life away just you know leave me uh leave me for loss although he wants to live out his life in a psychiatric institution there are so few Mental Hospitals left that long-term commitment has become almost impossible Jerry Tharp was released to a halfway house I think a lot of the attitude has been over the years out of sight out of mind you lock people away then they're no longer a problem well guess what 98% of everybody who go to the prison who go to prison get out and it behooves us all to pay close attention to it uh when we can and and not to uh sweep it under the rug it's been over a year since Robert Bankston had to be restrained in the prison infirmary in and out of prison for 16 years on his purse snatching conviction Bankston recently became eligible for parole just love time I mean for sing the purse and I've been down here paying every since it's I don't know I hope they pay me I hope they give me a parole that's all I can say you [Music] know Mr Bankston yeah we're ready to see you Bankston hi hi you come a long way your behavior has improved significant ific L hasn't it yes sir you haven't had a conduct violation since it's been a while since um I think 2003 mhm 2003 have you noticed that you tend to get in more trouble when you're not doing the meds right or what yes I tend I tend to uh get paranoid you you usually that's when that's when some something take place they wind up sending me to D1 and at Lucasville for refusal okay is that what's happening on the the rest of these yes is that what happens out on the street too yes pretty much my my my Po when I was out last time he made sure I stayed on the medication uhhuh y do you have contact with your family do you have a report still with your family well I talked to my aunt around a week ago that was that was about the last person I talked to my grandmother died since I've been locked up okay I really know not really in terms of a place to reside do you have a place well my mother that's about it well you haven't talked to her so you wouldn't know if you could reside there or not right right Robert Bankston was granted parole on the condition that he continue his mental health treatment and meet regularly with his parole officer they gave you the man you know that's got to be the greatest feeling in the world yeah it's cool it's cool yeah all you got to do is get out there and maintain man yeah Dam man was going to I a even know if I was going get the parole or nothing man man what Michael Townson my time this is Robert bankston's fourth parole each time he has been released in the past he stopped taking his medication and ended up homeless violated his parole and was sent back to prison another inmate Keith Williams is about to leave the Maximum Security Prison he served his full twoyear sentence for burglary and is being released to St Paul's a homeless shelter in Toledo and is your family there no um I'm not I'm not close to my family anymore been been away too long um I just I know same pause and then after that somewhere else with my people who are your people um my momy angel's cats and where where are they living um they live all over the world if I'm not mistaken they live all over the world all over the world all over the world we release people with two weeks worth of medication yet it appears that it's taking 3 months for people to actually get an appointment in the community to continue their services we have a fairly solid Correctional Mental Health Services that we have supported people with and when they go out they're going to have to be assertive if not aggressive to try to to get the services that they need and if they don't have the energy Andor the inside to do that they're going to what we say fall through the cracks and end up back in some kind of uh criminal activity that ends up with them going back to jail and possibly coming back to prison we give you $75 gate money to go home on so it's going to be a total of 8116 okay 16 cents there's 81 okay oh and good luck to you Mr Williams 45629 this is a 2 we Supply so you'll need to get in to see the doctor before these run out to get them uh to get a new prescription the RIS doll is the green tablet the C is the white tablet if you miss a dose then take it uh take it again at the next opportunity but don't double up on the do I'm working here the 15 years I've been here I've learned that a lot of the mentally ill inmates that are in here you can't just lock him up and tell him to do 10 20 years and then soon as that time's up sending back out on the street that it's not going to work it's it it's not definitely not going to work today there are over 2 million people in US jails and prisons and nearly 500,000 of them are mentally illz your ID although Ohio's prison Mental Health Care system is considered one of the best in much of the country vast numbers of mentally ill inmates continue to receive little or no treatment I started in this work in 1973 we had 7,000 prisoners uh today we have over 44,000 and nationally those numbers parallel uh what we experienced here in Ohio but also in 1973 the number of persons in mental health and retardation facilities was a lot greater than what existed in state and federal correctional institute prison is simply not the place of First Choice in which to provide mental health care and with a certain irony I would say we shouldn't devote ourselves to raising continually raising the level of mental health care in prisons because the better you make an institution that shouldn't be used for the purpose you're improving the more you're inur during its use are you in the community service project see if you get in the community service projects he can hook you up with a lot more stuff we are The Gatekeepers of a lot of persons who are mentally ill and that's not something we relish we we don't like that idea we we don't like the idea that we're being charged with fixing a lot of the woses of our communities but I don't think that we've develop the system of Alternatives that need to be in place in order to prevent the kind of problems that we're dealing with now in prisons and jails across this [Music] country less than a month after being released from prison Keith Williams stopped taking his medication and assaulted a counselor at the homeless shelter he has been back to jail twice Jerry Tharp was out of prison for only 2 months when he robbed a pharmacy arrested hours later Tharp told police he committed the crime because he wanted to go back to prison Carl mccan in prison for 16 years was finally paroled but before he could be freed mcran who had come to the US from Jamaica as a child was detained by US immigration and deported after Robert Bankston was paroled he stopped taking his medication and was asked to leave his homeless shelter he hasn't reported to his parole officer in weeks and if he fails to show up within the month a warrant will be issued for his arrest and Benny Anthony who was in prison for 11 years was also paroled he is now enrolled in a special program for mentally ill inmates and is reportedly doing [Applause] [Music] [Music] well next time on Frontline World in Israel the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Chiron has been rushed to hospital an intimate look at chiron's successor audet on the eve of the election I want to lead I want to change and I'm going to do it but how will he face the historic challenges ahead this story and more on the next Frontline world to order front lines the new asylums on video cassette or dvd call PBS home video at 1 1800 play [Music] PBS funding for Frontline is provided by the park Foundation committed to raising public awarness with additional funding for this program from the John D and Katherine T MacArthur Foundation Frontline is made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank [Music] you
