Group Files Suit Over Montana’s Alleged Treatment Of Individuals With Mental Illness

The AP (4/1, Volz) reports that Disability Rights Montana on Monday filed a Federal lawsuit against seven officials with the Montana Department of Corrections and Department of Public Health and Human Services over claims that the officials have “warehoused” individuals with mental illness.

According to the lawsuit, the state officials have been placing patients with mental illness into Deer Lodge prison in order to increase bed space in the Montana State Hospital; the patients are then “mistreated and denied proper mental-health care,” representing cruel and unusual punishment and violations of due process, the AP says.

Disability Rights Montana says those determined to be “guilty but mentally ill” that are transferred from the hospital to the prison encounter significant hardship and is asking a judge to find that the inmates were discriminated against and had their constitutional rights violated.

Related Links:

— “Group: Montana warehouses mentally ill inmates,” Matt Volz, Washington Times, April 1, 2014.

Posted in In The News.