“A jail is not a mental health treatment facility”.

Last year, Rikers Island saw more suicides than the past 5 years combined. (nyp, 2021) Uniformed staff are required to complete suicide refresher training each year, however, between November 1, 2020 and November 8, 2021 only 2,400 out of 8,800 received the life-saving training. During that time, 6 inmates committed suicide. About 9 more inmates lost their lives during 2021 almost consecutively. The youngest inmates were only 24 years of age. (Dept. of Corrections)

The crisis on Rikers Island is not a new issue, so there is no reason why things have been allowed to spiral out of control to the extent that they have. The inhumane conditions for those housed on the island are not a secret, so why isn’t anyone helping?

In 2021, conditions rapidly deteriorated causing Covid to spread like wildfire, staff shortages causing lock downs, and exacerbated the mental health crisis among inmates. There should be no reason why Rikers holds more men and women with mental illness than all of New York’s Psychiatric hospitals combined. 

How can mentally ill individuals who are incarcerated in Rikers receive proper treatment in conditions that have been known to cause even the healthiest inmates to have a decline in their mental health? Kalief Browder was an incarcerated innocent young man who had his whole life ahead of him, but it was cut short by suicide just 2 years after his release from the tortures he endured behind those walls. 

Mentally ill inmates often endure punishments for not following rules or for other actions they are just not mentally capable of controlling. How is something like solitary confinement or lock-down effective towards treatment of the mind? This is the same reason mentally ill inmates are vulnerable to a revolving door of arrests. Incarcerating them in those conditions is not allowing them the proper care they need to successfully transition back into society upon release. On the contrary, they are often released in worse conditions, which is setting them up for failure or possibly even death. 

Individuals with mental health issues should be entitled to speedy trials and transferred to Psychiatric/Rehabilitation facilities where they will not be subjected to the neglect of missing medications or opportunities for recreational services and therapy. Throwing someone who is struggling into a confined space where their basic human needs are being ignored should be considered abuse. Anyone who has the authority to make a change and hasn’t should be held accountable for the inmates lives lost due to mental health issues. How many more lives need to be lost before this crisis is finally seen as a priority? 

Sending mentally ill offenders to facilities that specialize in mental health treatment and rehabilitation will not just help the individual avoid the revolving door, it will also alleviate the overcrowding in Rikers Island.