Noting the death in custody of Natasha McKenna, a woman with mental illness, an editorial in the Washington Post (5/14) cites a new report by Human Rights Watch which “documents the routine brutality exercised by guards who are untrained and ill-equipped to deal with mentally ill people, who make up enormous proportions of jail and prison populations.” The Post ties the report’s findings to McKenna’s case, pointing that according to the report, force is “used when there is an immediate security need to control the inmate, but the amount of force used is excessive to the need, or continues after the inmate has been brought under control.”
Related Links:
— “The abuse of the mentally ill in America’s prisons,” Editorial Board, Washington Post, May 13, 2015.