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Mark Fonda is a patient of Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center who is accusing certain individuals at the facility of arrogance, corruption and outright criminal conduct. Fonda alleges that not only has he been “warehoused” at the facility, but that he has been harassed, abused and assaulted for exposing a petty corruption scandal coupled with some serious criminal conduct.
Warehousing is a mental health term for permanently or indefinitely incarcerating or housing a mental patient or homeless person in an institutional facility without justification. A facility warehouses a person because:
a. it does not want to make a serious effort to find a real home for inmates;
b. it mistakenly or intentionally claims that inmates are not fit to leave the institution; or
c. it wants to house inmates indefinitely because doing so may have financial benefits.
Mark Fonda claims that he was put in the Mid Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center for good reason—he was mentally ill and violated an order of protection eight times that should have kept him away from a girl. Fonda said that once he was put on medication, his condition (paranoid schizophrenia) “went into remission.” He stabilized mentally and has been well-behaved and following program rules. He hopes to be transferred to Capital District Psychiatric Center, a less secure facility.
In addition to the warehousing problem, Fonda claims to have exposed a petty corruption scandal at the facility. “For a fee of ninety dollars, aides brought us coffee and cigarettes. This practice was covered up by the therapeutic aides. They also permitted loansharking and gambling. The gambling went into the thousands of dollars. There was this mafia character who was in the ward who would call his friend from the outside, who would send us money,” Fonda said.
Another patient involved in the scandal allegedly assaulted Fonda for exposing it. Fonda claims that he was threatened by aides who reminded him that he had no place else to live, and that his life would be a living hell if he exposed the scandal. Fonda claims that he was also robbed and harassed. Other patients were allegedly told to “cover for the aides because they had covered for you.”
“The famous slogan going around here now is that 'snitches get stitches,'” said Fonda.
The final insult, Fonda says, was when therapeutic aides arranged for the inpatients to physically fight each other in order to obtain snacks or a cup of coffee, which the aides found highly entertaining. Fonda describes these fights as “bloody battles.”
In order to resolve his problems at Mid Hudson, Fonda reported the warehousing and the scandals to a lawyer from Mental Hygiene Legal Services (MHLS). He reported the assault to the State Police and to Mid Hudson's Risk Management Division. His MHLS lawyer has been advocating on his behalf ever since. Risk Management moved him to another ward after the assault and allegedly told him to keep the issue confidential, though Fonda hasn't done so, expressing his feelings about the scandal in group therapy.
When word circulated around the facility that Fonda had contacted City Voices, Fonda said to us that he was advised by his social worker and his doctor to shut down the story so as not to jeopardize his next transfer. He claims that even his MHLS lawyer has advised him not to do anything that would endanger his transfer.
Both Mid Hudson's administration and Risk Management Division refused to talk to us on the grounds of inmate confidentiality. We were referred to the Public Information Division of the Office of Mental Health, the governing body of all New York State Psychiatric facilities, which refused to speak to us on the same grounds. Fonda later tried to convince Risk Management to talk to us, but to no avail. We also encountered problems with Fonda's social worker, who, for a period of time passed our messages onto Fonda, but ultimately stopped doing so on the grounds that he “did not know if a Mark Fonda was in the center anymore.”
This reporter will continue to update New York City Voices' readers on the Mark Fonda situation at Mid Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in upcoming editions.