| Letter From Dr.Kupers | |
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July 5, 2001 CONFIDENTIAL
Re: Chad Ray Bennett TDCJ #790798 I have been asked by Chad Ray Bennettıs mother, Brenda Pitts Bennett, to provide a psychiatric consultation regarding Mr. Chad Ray Bennett. I am a board certified psychiatrist with expertise on the psychiatric effects of incarceration and the provision of correctional mental health care, Co-Chair of the Committee on Persons with Mental Illness Behind Bars of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, and author of Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 1999). Mrs. Bennett has a power of attorney signed by her son, and therefore the legal authority to request my consultation and to request that you provide me information about his condition. I understand that Mr. Bennett has been incarcerated for four years in the TDJC, and has been in segregation for approximately one year. Over that year, his mother reports, his psychiatric condition has deteriorated significantly. While he has been previously assigned diagnoses of Bipolar Disorder and Hyperactivity Disorder and treated with appropriate medications for both those conditions, it is my understanding that he is not currently being treated with psychiatric medications. He also suffers from Lymeıs Disease and a pain-inducing back condition. According to his motherıs report, he has been suffering immensely from the conditions in segregation and his emotional health has been deteriorating over several months. In addition, the temperature in the segregation unit where he is incarcerated exceeds 110 degrees Fahrenheit at times in the summer. At this point I would like to review Mr. Bennettıs medical and psychiatric charts, and request that a psychiatrist examine him to evaluate his condition and consider the liklihood that prolonged punitive segregation is contraindicated for Mr. Bennett because of his past psychiatric history and because of current signs of decompensation. I would appreciate hearing from you and/or the psychiatrist about his situation and what steps are being taken to alleviate his suffering and treat his medical and psychiatric conditions.
Thank you very much. I am copying below the article I sent plus another about a case I experted in Washington. Your son's situation is entirely unfair, on top of the general human rights abuses inherent in supermaxes. I really respect and admire you for the way you continue to struggle and your fight for prisoners. Yes, I'm very open to being interviewed on radio by telephone, if I can arrange the time that's required. Ask the host to phone me to make an appointment, or to email me. I appreciate the exposure, because besides wanting to make a general statement about the awful state of
prison conditions, I have a new book out -- I'm co-editor of Prison Masculinities, Temple University Press, 2001. Also, do you know Sandrine Ageorges and Bianca from Europe? -- from whom I think I first heard of you Best wishes, | |
| From The Community Psychiatrist, a publication of the American Associationof Community Psychiatrists, Summer, 1998. | |
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The SHU Syndrome And Community Mental Health The SHU Syndrome is a little known form of psychiatric decompensation, with a quickly rising incidence. It occurs in supermaximum security prisons, where a growing number of individuals suffering from serious and persistent mental disorders are housed. "SHU" means Security Housing Unit. Some states use that acronym for their supermaximum security prison units, where the prisoners are locked in their cells nearly 24 hours per day and are cell-fed. Other states use other initials, but "SHU" has become the generic term for supermax or "maxi-maxi" or "control units," such as the ones at Pelican Bay State Prison in California or Marion or Florence in the federal system. 38 states and the federal system currently operate such units. These units are like "the hole" of the old days, except a prisoner who missbehaved was thrown in "the hole" for 10 days, whereas prisoners are sent to the SHU for years. And instead of being a dark, damp dungeon; most SHU's are high tech, lights-on-all-night, doors open by remote control, video monitoring of prisoners, etc. -- i.e., the prisoners have very minimal contact with guards and other prisoners. Psychiatrist Stuart Grassian coined the term "SHU Syndrome." He examined a large number of prisoners during their stay in segregated, solitary confinement units and concluded that these units, like the sensory deprivation environments that were studied in the sixties, tend to induce psychosis. Even those inmates who do not become frankly psychotic report a number of psychosis-like symptoms:
And why should we, as public mental health practitioners, be concerned about this widespread development? I can think of two very frightening reasons: 1. Between a quarter and a half of the prisoners in the SHU's I have visited or read about suffer serious and long-term mental illnesses. They are, on average, the most severely psychotic people I have seen in my entire 25 years of psychiatric practice. There are two basic reasons for this: inadequately treated prisoners suffering from mental disorders break rules, get into fights (often as victims -- they are called "dings" or "bugs" by other prisoners), and are punished time in "lock-up" or solitary confinement of one kind or another. After they get sentenced to enough time in solitary, they are sent to the SHU -- where the "SHU Syndrome" effect worsens their psychiatric symptoms and their prognoses. 2. Increasingly, prisoners are "Maxing out of the SHU." Prisoners on fixed sentences have a release date, their disciplinary infractions in prison do not extend that date, though they are sentenced to SHU time for the infractions. When their release date comes up, even if they are housed in a SHU at the time, they are simply set free. (Some states do some pre-release programming, but the ones I have reviewed are inadequate to the task of re-socializing someone who has been psychotic and has been in solitary for a long time. Of course, the implications for community mental health are ominous. Not only are individuals suffering from serious and long-term mental illnesses being sent to prisons in larger proportions, but they are not adequately treated and they wind up in lock-up. A subgroup of them are showing up in SHU's (another subgroup voluntarily isolates themselves in their cells so they won't get in trouble), then, eventually, "maxing out of the SHU." This means they come out of prison after spending months or years in a cell by themselves, decompensated and full of rage. Brenda, Terry A. Kupers, M.D., is the author of Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 1999) and Co-Editor of Prison Masculinities (Temple University Press, 2001) SENATE CONTACTS Senator Jeff Wentworth:jeff.wentworth@senate.state.tx.us Senator Mike Jackson:mike.jackson@senate.state.tx.us *Senator Arlene Wohlgemuth:arlene.wohlgemuth@house.state.tx.us Senator Robert Duncan:robert.duncan@senate.state.tx.us *Senator Rodney Ellis:rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us *Senator Royse West:royce.west@senate.state.tx.us Senator Chris Dodd:senator@dodd.senate.gov *Senator Chris Harris Senator Terri Hodges:terri.hodge@house.state.tx.us Governor Rick Perry: T.D.C.J. CONTACTS Warden of Wynne Unit fax #936-291-4696 TDCJ Director Gary Johnson:exec.director@tdcj.state.tx.us TDCJ Health Services:health.services@tdcj.state.tx.us TDCJ Office of Onbudsman:inst.div@tdcj.state.tx.us | |
| June 1 , 2002, Texas Police Burtality.Brenda Pitts Bennett |