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| Mental Health Care in Prison: Maine Bill Seeks Solution |
| By mpbn.net - Patty B. Wright |
| Published: 05/14/2013 |
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The number of Maine inmates who are court-ordered to receive mental health treatment is growing, but the state's psychiatric hospitals don't have enough capacity to meet the demand. A proposed bill seeks to alleviate the bottleneck by providing mental health care within the walls of the Maine State Prison in Warren. Supporters call it an innovative solution to the lack of pyschiatric beds in the state, but opponents are waving red flags. Patty Wight reports. Mary Louise McEwen, the superintendent of Riverview - the state mental hospital in Augusta - says she's concerned by what she's observed over the past few years. It used to be that half of Riverview's patients were civilian, half forensic - or criminal. Now, she says, two-thirds of the patients are forensic, and there are still more in line to be admitted. But the existing patients are challenging - they caused 65 injuries to staff last year. "Riverview does not have the same tools as corrections facilities to manage aggressive, assaultive and violent behavior," McEwen testified. "And this behavior has seriously injured hospital staff, causing them to be out of work for long periods of time - and, in some cases, out of this line of work forever." Read More. |
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