Supporting Prisoner’s Mental Health: A False Choice between Treatment and Security

JT suffers from frontal lobe deficits, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. He entered the federal prison system in 1995, where he was held in solitary confinement for extended periods of time. He began to self-harm in the form of head-banging as a coping mechanism.

The Correctional Service of Canada put JT under a Behaviour Management Protocol that required him to be locked in his cell if he engaged in head-banging, and to remain there for 24 hours without banging his head. If he did not stop banging his head, he would be given an order to stop and then force, including chemical agents, would be used against him. He was held in solitary confinement for hundreds of days…

Read the whole story at bc-counsellors.org. Also check out the conference we are hosting on June 2, 2017 on mental healthcare in prisons.

Prisoners’ Legal Services
302-7818 6th Street
Burnaby, BC

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

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Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

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