By C1 Staff
SALEM, Ore. — A report by a mental health researcher is stating that security was at its best when corrections officers knew how to handle mentally ill inmates.
The Medical Press reports that the study was conducted by Case Western Reserve University mental health researcher Joseph Galanek.
He spent nine months in an Oregon maximum-security prison to learn first-hand how the prison manages inmates with mental illness.
“With this research, I hope to establish that prisons, with appropriate policies and staff training, can address the mental health needs of prisoners with severe mental illness,” he said. “Additionally, I show that supporting the mental health needs to inmates with severe mental illness concurrently supports the security and safety of prisons, and that these two missions are not mutually exclusive.
“With the number of prisoners with severe mental illness in prison increasing, efforts need to be made by all prison staff to ensure that this segment of the prison population has appropriate mental health care and safety.”
The report states that officers received training to identify symptoms of mental illness, which in turn led to better security, safety and humane treatment of potentially volatile inmates.
Galanek recounted some instances where an officer’s decision to help mentally ill inmates, rather than rigidly enforce prison rules, maintained order within the facility:
- Prisoners are required to work 40 hours at an assigned job. But one inmate chose to remain in his cell instead of reporting to work—a prison offense. The inmate told the officer he was experiencing auditory hallucinations. Instead of sending the prisoner to a disciplinary unit, the officer allowed the prisoner to remain in his cell until the hallucinations passed.
- A correctional officer confronted a violent prisoner, who was off his medication and began smashing a TV and mirror and threatened other prisoners. Instead of disciplinary confinement, the officer conferred with mental health workers, who sent the prisoner to the inpatient psychiatric unit to get him back on his medication.
- Prisoners aren’t allowed to loiter or talk to other inmates outside their cells. But a high-functioning inmate with a bipolar disorder worked a janitorial job that allowed him to talk to other mentally ill inmates. Through those conversations, he was able to let officers know when inmates were exhibiting symptoms of their mental illness. That information allowed the officers to quickly address potential problems and decrease security risks.
Galanek noted that if these inmates were sent to segregation, they would likely grow agitated and experience hallucinations that brought about security problems. He stated that mentally ill inmate’s work is important since it acts as a coping mechanism to decrease the impact of psychiatric symptoms.
He acknowledged that gaining such access to prison culture is rare, but said he was uniquely prepared to nagivate the prison for his research due to being a mentla health specialist.