Isolation in jail, used for safety and punishment, can exacerbate mental illness | Jailed in ...

Page 1 of 3

LIMITED-TIME OFFER ON UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS – ONLY $2 FOR 20 WEEKS

Subscribe Sign in

JAILED IN CRISIS Home / News / Local News / Databases & Projects / Jailed in Crisis

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/projects/jail-crisis/article_454bf62e-975a-11e8-8a5d-3be2fef59835.html

Isolation in jail, used for safety and punishment, can exacerbate

mental illness
A comprehensive Virginian-Pilot investigation

By Rebecca Carballo
The Virginian-Pilot
Aug 23, 2018 Updated Aug 24, 2018

Bebeto Matthews | AP Photo

This Jan. 28, 2016, photo shows a solitary confinement cell at New York's Rikers Island jail. 

      2
Shares
2 0 0 0 0 0

More than 40 percent of the people counted by The Virginian-Pilot as dying in jail with
mental illness were segregated from other inmates and housed in some form of
isolation.

Forms of isolation have long been known to exacerbate the symptoms of mental
illnesses. 

Over half of them died by suicide, unwatched and alone.

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/projects/jail-crisis/article_454bf62e-975a-11e8-8a5d-3b... 8/29/2018
Isolation in jail, used for safety and punishment, can exacerbate mental illness | Jailed in ... Page 2 of 3

That is the story of Amanda Sloan.

Sloan, 30, was an inmate at Santa Cruz

County Jail in California. In July 2013, she
fashioned a noose out of bed sheets, then
removed a poster from the wall of her cell,
revealing a pipe she had dug out of the
drywall, according to a lawsuit her family
filed. She tied the noose around the pipe
and hanged herself.

While in isolation she was left “with the

means to kill herself barely hidden behind
the obviously noncompliant makeshift
posters,” the suit alleged.

Hangings were the most common way to die in isolation, accounting for 70 of the 167
isolation cases. The next most common, in only 17 of the cases, was cardiac-related
events.

Sloan had given many signs that she was suicidal, the suit alleged. She threatened to
kill herself after her husband was murdered in 2012 outside their home and died in
her arms.

That trauma, coupled with her arrest, most likely left her fragile, said Ron Honberg
senior policy adviser at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“When anyone goes to jail, that’s a shock in itself,” Honberg said. “It’s a period of
vulnerability.”

About a quarter of widows and widowers will experience clinical depression and
anxiety during the first year of mourning, according to the the National Center for
Biotechnology Information.

In the Pilot’s database, depression is the third most prevalent mental illness among
inmates put in isolation.

Just before she was arrested, Sloan pointed a gun at her head, taunting officers to
shoot her. While in jail she was prescribed medications for her bipolar disorder that
had the known side effect of prompting suicidal thoughts.

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/projects/jail-crisis/article_454bf62e-975a-11e8-8a5d-3b... 8/29/2018
Isolation in jail, used for safety and punishment, can exacerbate mental illness | Jailed in ... Page 3 of 3

While locked up, Sloan attempted suicide at least twice by slashing her wrists,
according to the lawsuit. But still she was put in isolation. It was later discovered that
the officers had not done the required number of security checks and had falsified
records to make it seem like they had. Sloan's family settled their lawsuit for $1
million.

Fifty-nine percent of isolation cases ended in a lawsuit, and 40 percent of those ended
in a settlement.

Jails cite several reasons for separating inmates from the rest of the population.
Sometimes it’s for safety concerns or clinical purposes, but often it’s because of their
behavior.

Individuals who suffer from mental illness have difficulty conforming to facility rules,
and isolation is often used as a form of punishment, according to the National
Commission on Correctional Health Care.

This is what happened to Terrill Thomas. He spent seven days in isolation in

Milwaukee County Jail, with the water in his cell shut off.

Terrill acted out and was put in isolation, where he would die alone, naked on the
floor.

“They treated his mental illness as a behavioral problem and disciplined him,” said
Terrill’s lawyer, Erik Heipt. ”And the way they disciplined him was incredibly
inhumane.”

Rebecca Carballo, rebecca.carballo@pilotonline.com

Tags Jail Deaths Jail Mental Health Care Mental Illness

      2
Shares
2 0 0 0 0 0

Rebecca Carballo
Rebecca Carballo was a 2018 intern on the consumer team for The Virginian-Pilot.

Click to load 1 comments

https://pilotonline.com/news/local/projects/jail-crisis/article_454bf62e-975a-11e8-8a5d-3b... 8/29/2018