ACLU in Court Friday Calling for End to Indefinite Detention of Innocent Mentally Ill Inmates in Virgin Islands Jail
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 28, 2007
11:15 AM
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CONTACT: ACLU
Will Matthews, ACLU, (212) 549-2582 or (212) 549-2666,
media@aclu.org
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ACLU in Court Friday Calling for End to Indefinite Detention of Innocent Mentally Ill Inmates in Virgin Islands Jail
Expert Witness Will Recommend Overhaul of Health Care System
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ST. THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS - November 28 - The American Civil Liberties Union will ask a federal judge Friday to levy fines against top governmental officials in the Virgin Islands for failing to adhere to previous court orders to transfer inmates out of prison who have mental illness and have been found not guilty by reason of insanity out of prison.
In an affront to two previous rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Brotman, five inmates have been forced to languish inside the Virgin Islands Criminal Justice Complex (CJC) to the further detriment of their mental health, despite judicial order that they be transferred to psychiatric hospitals.
Because there are no psychiatric facilities in the Virgin Islands, Judge Brotman ordered in 2004 and again in 2006 that either a hospital capable of providing the five inmates with proper care be built, or that the inmates be transferred to psychiatric hospitals on the U.S. mainland.
In a February 2007 ruling in the federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the ACLU, Carty v. DeJongh, Judge Brotman found the governor, attorney general and other governmental officials in contempt of these orders. Judge Brotman will hear arguments from both sides about the contempt order Friday.
Jeffrey Metzner, a mental health expert who has monitored the CJC since 2004, is scheduled to testify about the abysmal state of the territory’s correctional health care system which, among other things, has housed in isolation for more than five years a 23-year-old inmate with mental illness whose charges have been dropped and who has been ordered to be transferred to a stateside psychiatric hospital. At the hearing Friday, the ACLU will argue that it is necessary for Judge Brotman to appoint an independent receiver to take over the health care system and construct an adequate system from the ground up.
WHAT: At the hearing, the ACLU will call for the governor, attorney general, and other governmental officials to pay contempt fines until they transfer the innocent inmates with mental illness to a psychiatric hospital where they will receive sufficient treatment, and will ask the federal court to appoint a receiver to take over a grossly inadequate health care system at the CJC.
WHO: Eric Balaban, senior staff counsel for the ACLU National Prison project, will argue on behalf of the inmates. Jeffrey Metzner, M.D., mental health expert, will testify about insufficient mental health treatment and needed remedies.
WHEN: Friday, November 30, 2007, 10:30 am Atlantic Standard Time.
WHERE: United States District Court Courthouse, Alexander Farrelly Justice Complex, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.
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