Baker to announce changes in the treatment of mentally ill inmates
Gov. Charlie Baker will announce on Tuesday that he wants to approach mentally ill inmates in a different way, reports The Boston Globe.
Baker wants to move away from a prison model and more toward a clinical approach at the troubled Bridgewater State Hospital.
“It will look and feel more like a psychiatric hospital,” Marylou Sudders, Baker’s secretary of health and human services, told the Globe.
Baker’s administration wants mentally ill inmates charged with minor crimes to stay at Bridgewater while those convicted of state crimes are moved to a different facility. In the new plan, there will be an increase in mental health services and more limits on the contact between correctional officers and inmates. In 2009, 23-year-old Joshua Messier died as guards struggled to restrain him.
Every inmate will get a treatment plan within 10 days of arriving and see a psychiatrist if they are taking psychiatric medications, according to the plan.
“I’ve read all the reports, I’ve read all the news stories, I know the experiences of individuals with serious mental illness and their families,” Sudders said. “There’s no question in my mind that this [plan] really lays out a very different expectation of treatment services.”
Read the full story in the Globe.
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