The program began after the Disability Rights Network advocacy group filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in 2013. The Department of Justice launched an independent investigation into the state’s prison system that same year, focusing on the treatment of inmates with mental health issues and the prisons’ use of solitary confinement to subdue those individuals, according to the article.
Before the investigation, individuals with mental illness could be sent into solitary confinement. During the course of a year, the DOJ’s investigation concluded that 1,000 mentally ill inmates were held in solitary confinement for more than 90 days, according to the article.
The investigation found that placing the individuals in solitary confinement resulted in serious harm. In 2013, 206 of the 288 documented suicide attempts took place in solitary confinement units, according to the article.
As a result of the investigation, all staff members at the facility are now being trained in Mental Health First Aid, an eight-hour course designed to help staff members determine the warning signs leading up to a suicide attempt. The program also educates trainees of the various symptoms associated with different mental illnesses.
The program is open to inmates, as well, who can train to become peer-to-peer counselors for others inmates.
A spokesperson for the prison said officials cannot yet track the program’s progress.
More articles on population health issues:
E-cigarette, cigar industries target FDA tobacco rule
Study: Teen pregnancy declines attributed to contraceptives
10 states with the highest, lowest obesity rates
