Mentally ill inmates get warehoused at the ACI (continued)

THE CASE OF JIMMY Gonsalves shows how this is not just an abstract theory. In 1974, the Providence man was convicted of common law rape and sentenced to 30 years at the ACI. During the next 20 years, Gonsalves was transferred back and forth five times between the prison and the Forensic Unit due to psychosis and other serious mental health problems.

In August 1994, Gonsalves was transferred for a sixth time to the Forensic Unit. When MHRH moved to return him to the ACI, Cosper sued. During the trial, psychiatrist Michael Ingalls testified that once back at the ACI, Gonsalves would again exhibit the symptoms of his mental illness and require hospitalization. "It would be hard to create a more toxic environment to aggravate psychiatric illness than the prison," Ingalls concluded. "Mr. Gonsalves needs an environment staffed full-time with a multi-disciplinary mental health team." The trial also revealed that Gonsalves, if returned to the ACI, faced 999 days in punitive segregation, also known as solitary confinement, for past disciplinary violations.

In March 1996, Superior Court Judge Edward Clifton declared that expert testimony "demonstrates that confinement in the ACI causes Gonsalves to become more psychotic." Gonsalves was not sufficiently recovered to return to prison, Clifton ruled.

Gonsalves stayed in the Forensic Unit until 1997, Cosper says, when MHRH quietly transferred him to a locked civil ward at Slater, then to an unlocked ward. Gonsalves won parole in 2000 and moved to a supervised group home in South Providence, where he lives today. Although he would prefer to have his own apartment, Gonsalves says he finds the home "very comfortable," and spends his time playing bingo at the Providence Center. He even journeyed to the State House this year to lobby for better mental health services.

Unfortunately, Cosper says, this path is not available to all mentally ill inmates. State law entitles mentally ill people to appropriate care, he notes, but many prisoners are not receiving it. Like Roger Bruyere, Brian Jacobs and Daniel Rogers, Cosper argues, are two graphic examples.

Jacobs was arrested in August 1999 for bludgeoning his two-year-old daughter to death with a wooden tool in her Lincoln home. By August 2000, he was catatonic and declared not competent to stand trial, so he was sent from the ACI’s Intake Service Center to MHRH’s Forensic Unit for treatment. Two months later, after MHRH determined that Jacobs was competent to stand trial, he was arraigned and returned to the ACI. Twenty-eight days later, according to the Providence Journal, he committed suicide by climbing onto a ledge in a recreation area at the Intake Service Center and jumping off, headfirst. "Blood is on their hands," says Cosper, "and I don’t mean the prison. I mean the Forensic Unit."

In September 1999, Daniel Rogers of Providence, a 21-year-old man with a history of heroin use, stabbed Stephanie Potts, a woman he did not know, in the parking lot of the J. Joseph Garrahy Judicial Complex, according to her statement. This happened at 8:30 a.m. as she was gathering belongings from her car. Rogers, who was quickly caught, was found guilty of felony assault and sentenced to five years at the ACI.

During his two-hour visits to the prison, recalls Wayne Rogers, his son would not say a word, or he would laugh inappropriately, talk to people who weren’t there, and act like a robot walking with his arms at his side, not making eye contact. Some guards were helpful, Rogers says, telling him that his son needed treatment. One Christmas, Rogers’s bunkmate even sent him and his wife a card saying he would watch out for Daniel.

But despite his repeated pleas to DOC officials, Wayne Rogers says, "He got not one bit of treatment in the prison." As the years went by, Rogers says, his son’s mental health worsened. Daniel Rogers’s mother agrees, saying, "He vegetated and they let him, because they didn’t care."

As their son’s release date drew near, the Rogers wrote MHRH with Cosper’s help, warning them of the potential danger he posed to the community and requesting long-term step-down care. On the day Daniel Rogers was to be released, DOC finally acted, sending him to Butler Hospital with conditional probation. Rogers has since been discharged and is living with a relative.

Cosper remains outraged by how difficult it was to obtain mental health care for Rogers. "What mentally ill person," he asks, "has a higher claim on our resources than a psychotic who has stabbed a complete stranger?"

NICKI SAHLIN, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Rhode Island, shares the view that the DOC’s treatment for mentally ill prisoners is not adequate. As a member of a House commission investigating conditions at the ACI, Sahlin read numerous complaint letters from inmates and comments, and she says, "I’m realizing our ACI is much worse than I thought."

She supports diversion programs to provide treatment, not punishment for petty offenders with mental illness. But those sent to prison, she comments, "are sunk. Every one of their rules [like the prison’s policies on getting up on time and maintaining proper personal hygiene] gets you deeper and deeper into trouble." As a result, she comments, "People with mental illness almost invariably serve their whole sentence."

And that can be toxic for the mentally ill. "If you go in there with problems," she says, "you’re going to come out with them out of control."

Sahlin is surprised, however, at Friedman’s sworn statement that 550 inmates are on psychotropic drugs. "That’s an incredible proportion," she says, adding, "With that many people needing medication, there can’t be such a low number needing hospitalization [in the Forensic Unit]."

Nevertheless, Sahlin disagrees with Cosper’s drive to force more prisoners into Slater Hospital’s mental wards. She worries that a prisoner influx would disrupt the mentally ill who have not committed crimes. "If Reed has his way and we had 100 or 200 people who were sentenced offenders [in the Forensic Unit]," she says, "I don’t know if I’d want my son with those people."

"It’s not the place for them," Sahlin continues. "I would say we need another facility."

Former state Senator J. Clement Cicilline (D-Newport) also supports this idea. Cicilline, president and CEO of Newport County Community Mental Health Center Inc., and chairman of the special legislative commission, says objections from the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers (RIBCO) and problems with finding locations for step-down units have blocked the idea. "Community-based corrections is a very worthwhile concept," Cicilline comments, "if we can get past the scary stuff."

RIBCO president Richard Ferruccio says his union would support a correctional officer-staffed step-down facility for the mentally ill at the ACI, but not halfway houses in the community staffed by employees of noprofit or for-profit corporations. The mentally ill who commit crimes should serve their sentences and receive treatment, he contends, at the prison. Once released, they should receive more support, he says, especially to ensure they take their medications. "We support rehabilitation programs," he says. "They just have to be done safely."

In the absence of other changes, Cosper presses ahead. He hopes the US District Court will order MHRH to treat more of the mentally ill from the ACI. He expects the Muhammad case to go to trial in January or February.

Steven Stycos can be reached at stycos1@yahoo.com.