On June 28, 1999, Gregory Lee Richardson died in restraints in the Albany County Jail. Diagnosed with schizophrenia 20 years earlier, Mr. Richardson was in the jail following his arrest for a traffic-related incident on the New York State Thruway on June 10th. It appears that during the course of being prepared for transport to town court after nearly three weeks in the Albany County jail without a full psychiatric evaluation, Mr. Richardson became agitated. Jail officers returned him to his cell (apparently forcibly), restrained him face down, injected him with Haldol and left him unattended. Known side effects of Haldol include catatonic-like state and nausea.
Although some question remains about the activities of the correction officers on duty, Mr. Richardson was left unattended (possibly checked twice visually), discovered unconscious, having vomited, about 30 minutes later, and, shortly thereafter, pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center.
The death of the 42-year-old inmate living with schizophrenia raises some chilling concerns about the rapidly blurring lines between the mental health care system and the criminal justice/correctional systems in our society. One cause of this is the failure to adequately fund community services in response to decades of deinstitutionalization.
Mr. Richardson's death points out what appear to be numerous lapses and gaps as the lives of people living with mental illnesses are steadily being transinstitutionalized -- moving from treatment in hospital settings to detention and treatment in correctional settings.
According to recent reports, the single largest "mental hospital" in this state is the NYC jail on Riker's Island. More people are being treated for serious mental illnesses there than at any other state or general hospital facility in New York State.
The growing "criminalization" of mental illness should be a great cause for alarm. Mr. Richardson's case is yet another example showing that the criminal justice system is not equipped or disposed to provide adequate mental health services. The treatment model there is coercion-restraint, injection with older version drugs laden with side effects, with a focus on sedation and control first and appropriate services second at best.
We presently debate passing laws in this state allowing for Involuntary Outpatient Commitment -- "Kendra's Law" -- closing our eyes to the fact that such proposals would ultimately allow for a forced treatment scenario not unlike that suffered by Mr. Richardson. Each version of "Kendra's Law" we debate includes provisions in which law enforcement could be called upon to detain, transport and participate in the forced treatment of a person living with mental illness who has been deemed non-compliant.
Implicit in the passage of a "Kendra's Law" would be acceptance of the "criminalization" of mental illness as desirable social policy. Such an action would abrogate two centuries of hard won progress that have brought people living with mental illness out of the inhumane conditions of psychiatric hospital warehousing, jails and prisons, and into successful community services.
Rather than a "Kendra's Law," maybe we need a "Gregory's Law": One that ensures access to services, guarantees that people living with mental illnesses will not languish for weeks in our jails without appropriate treatment, and that government oversight will be sufficient to end the revolving doors between hospitals, jails and the streets for people living with mental illnesses.
Central to both issues is a core solution-improve access to community based services through a societal commitment to meeting the mental health needs of everyone in the setting most appropriate. Lives really do depend on it.