Season 2005 Episode 8 | 54m 32s | Video has closed captioning.
A report on the new reality for the mentally ill in America: Nearly 500,000 are serving time in U.S. jails and prisons. How did we get here, and are we doing anything to help them?
Aired: 05/10/05
>> NARRATOR: They are schizophrenic... >> Tried to kill myself about 17 times.
>> NARRATOR: ...paranoid... >> This is a plot by the government.
>> NARRATOR: ...and psychotic.
>> Thorazine me out, leave me for lost.
>> NARRATOR: But they are not in mental hospitals.
They are in prison.
>> Prisons have become the new asylums, the new state mental hospital facilities.
>> NARRATOR: 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.
>> NARRATOR: ...and investigates the stark reality of locking thousands of the mentally ill behind bars.
>> The attitude has been, "Lock people away; then they're no longer a problem."
>> Prison is simply not the place to provide mental healthcare.
>> NARRATOR: Why have America's prisons become the new asylums?
>> You know, I didn't get your name.
My name's Alex.
What's yours?
>> Jessie Parlee.
From Corvala, on the other side, three courses, 450 degrees molecule, 3175 away from Luther.
>> Okay.
Are you giving me directions?
>> Yeah, I'm giving you fathoms.
>> Okay.
>> Hey, Giovann, are you on medications that you're not... that you haven't taken today?
>> Uh, yes.
>> Yes, you did, or... >> No, I did not take them.
>> Okay.
Are you out of them?
>> Yes, I am.
>> What apartment do you live in?
>> Apartment 18.
>> Apartment 18?
>> Yes, one-eight.
>> Very good.
>> Who do you live there with?
>> Umm...
I stay there by myself.
>> Okay.
Do you have a phone at your house?
>> No.
>> Okay.
If something happened where you needed to get hold of family in an emergency... >> Yes?
>> ...who would you call?
>> I would call, 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 city?
>> I'm from, uh...
I don't know, really.
>> NARRATOR: Scenes like this have become all too familiar throughout America.
As the nation's psychiatric hospitals shut down, police departments everywhere were left to handle the growing number of mentally ill on the streets.
>> Watch your head.
>> Don't.
>> Her husband's coming up here saying, "Open the door."
"I can't let you in!
You guys are gonna kill me," and all that.
She thought we was gonna kill her.
>> What's your name, sir?
>> Why'd she think that?
>> You know, she's crazy.
>> Husband was telling us she's just off her meds.
So you guys just going to do a voluntary thing?
>> Yeah.
She's set to go if 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 to cycle into the system that cannot say no.
>> Have you ever considered or attempted suicide?
>> No.
>> Do you plan to harm yourself now or while you're incarcerated?
>> No.
>> Well, most of them are nonviolent crimes.
They're crimes against property, the petty theft out of the local 7/11 store, or even a criminal trespass-- a person with a mental issue goes in there to try and get shelter from the elements outside, and they start acting up.
And the property owner, you know, calls the police, and then soon as the police step in, they end up bringing them to jail, and here we go.
>> Hallelujah.
♪ Praise God... ♪ >> NARRATOR: Today, there are nearly 500,000 mentally ill being held in jails and prisons throughout America.
That's ten times the 50,000 that remain in psychiatric hospitals.
>> I want to see the doctor to get my meds.
Get out of my face, you filthy bitch.
>> All right, all right.
>> NARRATOR: 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 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.
>> NARRATOR: 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 custody.
>> I just feel like I'm suffering, man.
I 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... in a locked... a real small locked room.
And no matter how much I kick on the door, no matter how much I scream, man, don't nobody hear me, man.
>> What about you, Mr. Simmons?
>> They said I'm a paranoid schizophrenic.
>> Are you on forced medication?
>> Yeah.
>> What medications are you on right now?
>> NARRATOR: This is group therapy at the maximum security prison in Lucasville, Ohio.
>> Didn't like a lot of things I've seen in my childhood, a lot of things I've seen in my household.
Start having hate inside of me.
>> Come here, man, let me see your arms.
Bring them here.
I haven't even got to see it.
What's new?
All these?
>> All of them.
>> These?
>> Yeah.
>> How about this?
This new?
>> Yeah.
>> What drove you to this point, man?
Last time I seen you, 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 an awful lot of attention.
Many of them require hospitalization.
They require major regimens of psychiatric medications.
And they are a population that would be at risk, not only in the institutions, but when they leave the confines of our correctional facilities.
>> NARRATOR: Ohio spent the last decade reforming their system, and is now considered a model for providing mental healthcare behind bars.
>> I say, a-ha!
Can we get a witness?
Can we hear the Bible verse up there, Reverend Jack Black?
>> We've had inmates bang his head on the wall, scream, shout, yell, kicking the doors, kicking the bars.
That'd go on forever.
Throwing human waste on the range-- that's something that happens regular.
And somebody new that would come in here and experience something like that, they'd probably want to turn right back around and leave, say, "I don't want to come back in this place."
But, I mean, you get used to it after a while.
>> NARRATOR: In Ohio, mentally ill inmates are separated from the prisons' 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 to 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, 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 a world.
(men shouting) >> 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.
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 you do have some special abilities, right?
>> Yeah, mental telepathy.
>> Yeah, which is different than voices.
>> Yeah, it's a lot different.
A lot more friendlier.
>> Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And 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 Oprah Winfrey sometimes.
>> How is she friendly to you?
>> She's 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 interpersonal relationships that they might have with staff, as well as have with other inmates; having a population or an environment where people understand that illness, and yet keep in mind what the security needs are.
>> And I say what the (bleep) I want out of my (bleep) mouth to any one of you bitch mother (bleep) and I'll rape all you bitches here, every (bleep) one.
I'll rape your...
I'll rape all you bitches.
And you talk about raping, you punk (bleep) >> You want your light on?
>> What?
>> You want your light on?
>> Yeah, I want it on, bitch.
You better not (bleep) with it, you faggot.
>> 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.
>> Yes, ma'am.
>> NARRATOR: 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 custody, I will feel comfortable.
>> But you're kind of, like, in protective custody, remember?
We discussed this, Mr. Anthony.
>> But I want protective custody.
>> You're in your own cell.
>> I want protective custody.
>> All right.
>> (laughs) I want protective custody, because I'm scared.
>> Okay, and what are you afraid of?
>> (laughs) >> NARRATOR: Anthony has believed for years that people are trying to kill him.
>> They was from Texas.
They was coming out of Texas.
Some of them have syringes of poison, electric... electric, battery-powered volts on them where they can pierce your heart or your stomach.
And some of them have wooden bats, like, and, uh... guns.
(indistinct voice) >> Okay, Eric, what have you got?
>> Looks like a busy weekend.
Starting Friday, inmate Taylor down in J4 tried to hang himself.
They put him upstairs on a watch.
>> NARRATOR: 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 med compliant with his Risperdal 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 in their arm.
The difference is that Taylor had two toothbrushes up his arm, and they were 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.
>> NARRATOR: When inmates need acute care, they're brought here to the prison infirmary.
>> Brought me up here on constant watch, because they was afraid I was going to do something, and they thought I was either going to try to kill myself or seriously hurt myself again.
>> I don't know.
I think my meds need changed.
>> Well, they've 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 to see how it'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.
>> Resolve what?
I was doing fine working in the kitchen, this and that, and I go see this... whoever the hell this psych doctor is and... >> Have you not been taking your medication?
Is that true?
>> I don't feel I need it.
>> Providing effective psychiatric care in a 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 inmates that also suffer from severe mental illness become delusional and hallucinate.
>> Bankston, can you hear me?
>> No!
(screaming) >> NARRATOR: Robert Bankston, a paranoid schizophrenic, was brought to the infirmary when he became psychotic and started banging his head against the wall.
>> Roll him over.
>> Inmate Bankston, R151686.
The nurse states that he's having a psychotic episode.
>> (screams) >> Medication has been administered.
At this time, I have officers restraining the inmate on the gurney, as it's become necessary to do so.
He'll be placed on the cell 18 D1 infirmary.
He'll be placed in restraints.
>> No.
>> (groans) >> 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 mentally ill 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 on mandated medicine, then they continue to decompensate further.
>> NARRATOR: The medical staff decided to keep Bankston in the crisis unit on constant watch.
But he continued to refuse all the officers' orders to cuff up, so the prison's special response team was called in.
>> Bankston, I give you a direct order to step up here and turn around so handcuffs can be applied.
>> He was also given emergency medication to help with possible psychosis.
At approximately 7:10 I went down to check inmate's file to ensure that chemical agent can be used on him.
I'll be here to monitor use of force.
>> Officer Frasier.
I'll 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.
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 the 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.
>> (screams) >> I give you another direct order to step up here, Bankston.
>> (screams) >> You guys ready?
>> Come on.
>> (screams) What's up?
What's up?
What's up?
What's up?
(moans) Please, please, please, sir.
>> Stand up!
>> On your feet!
>> (coughing) Please, please, please, please, please, please, please!
Sir, sir, please.
(screaming) >> Stand up for me.
>> NARRATOR: Soon after this crisis, Bankston was placed on mandated meds and forced to take his medication until his condition stabilized.
>> I snatched a purse back in 1989.
If I'd have knew I was going to have to go through all this, boy, I wouldn't have...
Believe me, I wouldn't have never snatched no purse.
But yeah, it's classified as a robbery.
>> NARRATOR: 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 mentally ill inmates have come into prison either on minor violations of the law or parole violations.
And they were previously at a minimum- or medium-security prison, and because those prisons have their own strict rules and guidelines and expectations of compliance with security 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 a prison like this, which is kind of like the basement for the severely mentally ill in Ohio.
>> NARRATOR: 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 when we looked at certain kinds of behaviors prisoners were demonstrating 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 behavior that resembled deviant behavior was related to just criminal kinds of activities, or if it was induced by some mental illness.
>> You're in trouble.
You might have to wait a few minutes, all right?
>> NARRATOR: Michael Shreves, in prison for aggravated robbery, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
He was recently charged with spitting on an officer.
Before his disciplinary hearing, Shreves 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 I'm walking myself, he's grabbing the back of my jumpsuit, 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.
>> Yeah, but not spitting on him.
>> Right, but you do remember the incident.
>> Yeah, 'cause he said to me, "Do you spit?"
I said, "I don't spit."
>> Kahn?
>> Yeah?
>> Come on in here.
>> You know, they started lunch already.
>> Shut the door and have a seat.
>> Okay.
>> NARRATOR: Michael Kahn, 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 number is 20040368.
State your name and number for record.
>> Michael David Kahn, 234609.
>> Kahn, how do you plead to a rule 18?
>> Guilty.
>> Kahn, at this time the committee is going to allow you to make a statement.
>> Dr. Martin... Dr. Martin was going to keep me on level two for one year or so, and get special permission from Steve Dillon to have my TV as well as my fan trimmers in my cell while being on level two, until I showed some improvement.
What happened is I ignored the fact with a mister... or not realizing the fact... >> Kahn, 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 you was talking to Dr. Martin.
>> NARRATOR: Michael Kahn 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 Shreves was also found guilty.
It was his 18th rule violation this year, and he was sent to segregation.
>> I see a parole board in March of 2005.
>> If an inmate spits or refuses to hand back his food tray or curses an officer or doesn't cuff up when the officer says "Put your hands out and 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 system, but that's what happens.
That's what happens.
>> (indistinct shouting) >> 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 escalate.
It's going to cause a bigger problem on 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.
Just... it just seems that way.
To me it does, anyway.
Because once they get out, and then they get out... Once they reach that level, they're out of control, you know, then they need to... they need to be secured.
>> Come on, Donny.
>> No!
>> Donny, this is your last chance.
>> Don't want to go with them!
To go with them!
>> 42.
>> I ain't gonna fight.
I'll walk.
I ain't fighting!
Okay.
I'll walk, okay?
You done what you did.
I'm not fighting.
>> NARRATOR: Since entering prison in 1981, Donny Hall, convicted of rape, has had a terrible record of misconduct that has sent him to segregation nearly 100 times.
>> Help me!
Help me!
>> NARRATOR: 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 Donny Hall has been sent to Oakwood.
I feel a whole lot calmer, more better.
Don't feel upset no more.
And I'm doing a whole lot better, 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.
>> Uno!
>> Shuffle up, Clark.
Shuffle up.
>> These all mine?
>> Yeah, shuffle up, like this.
>> NARRATOR: Sigmon Clark, convicted of robbery, has been in and out of prison for nearly 20 years, and has been hospitalized at Oakwood many times.
>> Cut your cards.
Cut.
>> NARRATOR: 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 colors, the same way.
>> I went to like seven, eight institutions in some of 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 lower security if I done better.
But I still had this disease, mental illness, regardless of what is happening to me.
>> NARRATOR: Although Clark's behavior has improved significantly while at Oakwood, he cannot stay indefinitely.
>> It's just not intended to be anything other than a turnaround hospital, get you back to your environment.
And it has a mission-- short-term acute care; stabilize.
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've done wonderful in here.
So we are thinking of sending you back to Lucasville.
What is your idea?
>> The 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 to stay forever.
They stay as long as they need to be there.
Clinically, we feel that you have improved to the point that you can now 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 goal-directed conversations.
In other words, you do real well.
>> In this setting.
Do I do well in another setting?
>> And I see no reason why you can't.
>> A lot of it's up to you.
>> Don't you want a parole with better options?
>> I want a better day every 24 hours.
>> True.
>> NARRATOR: After 90 days at Oakwood, Sigmon Clark was sent back to the maximum-security prison in Lucasville.
>> Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Neff, you done lost weight.
You on days now?
>> Yeah, back on days.
>> NARRATOR: 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 gloomy, because I know I'm coming down the row of isolation now.
You're just stuck in a cell with all kind of thoughts going through your head.
Neff, I need a pillow and some toilet paper.
>> I'll get you.
One second.
>> I always 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 brighter.
>> I think basically this is home to him.
Getting to the point where the treatment that everyone would receive in prison is pretty much all that's left.
It's pretty ironic that they have to be locked in prison, probably, to get better mental health treatment than they could get if they were free.
>> NARRATOR: At Lucasville, the mental health staff struggled for nearly four years to manage and treat Jakuba 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.
>> NARRATOR: Jakuba Lewis was transferred out of a maximum-security prison to a lower-security prison in Orient, Ohio.
>> 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 mention 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 send a person to prison because they're going to get treated, then there's something disconcerting about that.
>> It's easier to do all of them on three than go up to two and still have... >> Hi, Lewis.
>> How are you doing?
>> How are you?
>> I'm doing fine.
>> Would you have a seat over here?
>> NARRATOR: Lewis is meeting with his new mental health team to discuss his ongoing treatment.
>> Did your mental illness have something to do with your crime?
>> Yes.
>> Can you share how?
>> Because when I was on the street, right before I caught my case, I was real, like... You ever heard somebody say a dark cloud come over their head?
Strange things was happening, but I really didn't know what it was.
People was talking to me in telekinesis.
Somebody was saying something, but they're really not.
But back then, I couldn't tell the truth, because I didn't know what schizophrenia was.
I didn't even know I had it.
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 murdered.
I killed two people.
>> And at that point of time you thought that they were the enemy?
>> Yes, I thought they were trying to kill me because of the way that the whole day was going.
Last four years, I've been learning more about it, so I know how to handle them a little better.
But I'm still not to the point where I can control it.
But I haven't had a psychotic episode in a long time.
>> NARRATOR: While Jakuba 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 continually say must be considered before one is given some diagnosis, some misdiagnosis, or some drug, you know, that's supposed to be a cure-all.
I'm saying, let's find out what's really going on first.
And being in prison, that's one problem.
What's all this for?
I'd say no use of force is necessary.
>> NARRATOR: Convicted initially for burglary, Carl McEachron returned to prison in 1988 when he violated his parole by stealing a bicycle.
For nearly a decade, McEachron's disciplinary 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 who 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 throwing 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.
People weren't saying, "We really need to help this person."
The tendency would be for somebody like that to just... "Let's lock him away.
"You know, if this person's going to behave like that, 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 still be in segregation, and they would probably never get out of segregation.
(indistinct conversation) >> Being involved in a solitary situation, being placed in solitary situation, 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.
I was brought to 4B illegally... >> If you're mentally ill when you go into segregation, you're going to become worse invariably.
If 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 begin with are deprived of any kind of social support, any kind of psychological stimulus.
And they just... they just fall apart.
(indistinct conversation) >> NARRATOR: McEachron 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 cellblock on his hands and knees.
He told officers that there were cameras in his eyes.
>> It seemed like a hopeless situation, because I was just...
I was just going down.
It's falling into this... this abyss, or... How would you pronounce it?
>> Abyss?
>> Abyss?
Okay.
And it's like you're... you're... that's it.
It's like, "Ah!
Is there anybody there? "
You're saying, "Help!"
And it's... it's really... there's... hopeless.
>> NARRATOR: Carl McEachron 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 parole 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 it's 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.
>> And they killed my (bleep) mother, all of them, every (bleep) one of these bitches murdered my (bleep) mother, and my (bleep) wife.
>> No, I'm not playing Jesus anymore.
I showed you Jesus.
I wasn't bothering the man about that.
I got the two pillows in my room.
>> NARRATOR: For mentally ill inmates, obtaining parole is almost always difficult.
>> I got a parole board date next month.
I'm hoping they'll let me go.
I'll just tell them that I've been incarcerated for 16 years, and have all remorse for things I've done.
And I know I'm mental, but I'm not incompetent.
And I know that...
I know that I can really function on the outside.
And I wish and hope that they would give me a parole, you know?
Yeah.
>> Good job.
>> All right, fellows.
First you take these far-in ones.
First two, Owens.
Go on down to that first two.
You right here, Hayes.
>> NARRATOR: While most inmates hope to be released, Jerry Tharp, who was granted parole after a ten-year sentence for robbery, doesn't want to leave prison.
>> You know, I'm trying to... you know, my release is coming quicker, and I'm trying to stop that, because it'll help us all.
>> Well, I know you said you had some concerns in treatment team.
>> Yeah, and I've said that about every treatment team that I've went to, and still nothing's becoming of it.
And you know, you know.
>> Do you have other plans when you get out, then?
>> Yeah, I have other plans.
And, you know, the sane mind that I'm in now, and the sanity that I still have says that's not, you know, right to go through with those plans.
And innocent people will be 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.
I've been locked up, you know, for so long that, you know, I have a fear of going directly to society, because, you know, in here, in prison, life's a lot simpler and everything is on a tight schedule, and I've learned that out in society, the world, well, society, it's... 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 government state hospital and take a, you know, lobotomy, I think is what they called it.
I don't know.
I think in some states it's still legal here.
You know, Thorazine me out.
What I mean by that is, overmedicate me with Thorazine and just leave me in a room to sleep my life away.
Just, you know, leave me for lost.
>> NARRATOR: 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 prison get out.
And it behooves us all to pay close attention to it when we can and not to sweep it under the rug.
>> NARRATOR: 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.
>> That's a lot of time, I mean, for snatching a purse.
And I've been down here paying ever since.
I don't know, I hope they pay me.
I hope they give me a parole, is all I can say, you know?
>> Mr. Bankston?
>> Yeah?
>> We're ready to see you.
>> Well, Mr. Bankston, hi.
>> Hi.
>> You've come a long way.
Your behavior has improved significantly, hasn't it?
>> Yes, ma'am.
>> You haven't had a conduct violation since... >> It's been a while.
Since, I think, 2003.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> 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 get paranoid.
Usually that's when something take place.
They wind up sending me to D1 at Lucasville for refusal.
>> Is that what's happened on the rest of these?
>> Yes.
>> Is that what happens out on the street too?
>> Yes, pretty much.
My... my PO, when I was out last time, he made sure I stayed on the medication.
>> Uh-huh.
Yeah.
>> Do you have contact with your family?
Do you have a rapport 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.
>> Not really.
No, not really.
>> In terms of a place to reside, do you have a place?
>> With 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.
>> NARRATOR: Robert Bankston was granted parole on the condition that he continue his mental health treatment and meet regularly with his parole officer.
>> They gave me the parole, man.
>> That's got to be the greatest feeling in the world.
>> Yeah, it's cool, it's cool.
Yeah, it is.
>> All you got to do is get out there and maintain, man.
>> Yeah.
Damn, man.
Hey, I didn't even know if I was going to get the parole or not, man.
>> Come on, man.
>> Michael Townsend?
>> Yeah.
Put in my time, man.
>> NARRATOR: 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 two-year sentence for burglary, and is being released to St. Paul's, a homeless shelter in Toledo.
>> And is your family there?
>> No.
>> Who are your people?
>> And where are they living?
>> We release people with two weeks' worth of medication, yet it appears that it's taking three 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 get the services that they need.
And if they don't have the energy and/or the insight to do that, they're going to, what we say, fall through the cracks and end up back in some kind of 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 $81.16.
There's 16 cents, and there's $81.
Okay?
And good luck to you.
>> Mr. Williams...
This is a two-week supply, so you'll need to get in to see the doctor before these run out to get a new prescription.
The Risperdal is the green tablet.
The Cogentin is the white tablet.
If you miss a dose, then take it again at the next opportunity, but don't double up on the doses.
>> From 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 them up, tell them to do ten, 20 years, and then soon as that time's up, send him back out on the street.
It's not going to work.
It's... it's not... definitely not going to work.
>> NARRATOR: Today there are over two million people in U.S. jails and prisons, and nearly 500,000 of them are mentally ill. >> Cortez?
>> Yeah.
>> Let me see your ID.
>> NARRATOR: 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.
Today we have over 44,000.
And nationally, those numbers parallel 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 institutions.
>> Prison is simply not the place of first choice in which to provide mental healthcare.
And with a certain irony, I would say we shouldn't devote ourselves to raising... continually raising the level of mental healthcare in prisons, because the better you make an institution that shouldn't be used for the purpose you're improving, the more you're ensuring its use.
>> Are you in the community service project?
See, if you can get in the community service project, 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 don't like that idea.
We don't like the idea that we're being charged with fixing a lot of the woes of our communities.
But I don't think that we've developed 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 country.
>> NARRATOR: 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 two 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 McEachron, in prison for 16 years, was finally paroled.
But before he could be freed, McEachron, who had come to the U.S. from Jamaica as a child, was detained by U.S. 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.
>> ♪ In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ We have a victory... ♪ >> NARRATOR: 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 well.
>> (singing indistinctly) >> Next time, on "Frontline World," in Lebanon, a former prime minister's assassination has sparked a revolution.
Reporter Kate Seelye looks at the chance for democracy in a country with so many different factions.
And in Liberia, a peacekeeper with a difficult mission to disarm tens of thousands of rebels.
>> Are you going to hand in your weapons?
>> No.
>> Don't miss "Frontline World."
>> "Frontline's" "The New Asylums" is available on videocassette or DVD.
To order, call PBS Home Video at 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
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