What is segregation and how does it affect the mentally ill?
Segregation is when prisoners are sent to solitary confinement, usually because of discipline problems. According to Human Rights Watch, the mentally ill are disproportionately represented in segregation units and in most prison systems, the mental health services in segregation is lacking. “If you’re mentally ill when you go into segregation, you’re going to become worse invariably,” says Fred Cohen. “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 just 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 fall apart.” Judges in California, Wisconsin, and Texas have ruled that holding the mentally ill in segregation is unconstitutional and violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
