Dec. 1, 2007 — The American Civil Liberties Union urged a federal judge Friday to fine top government officials in the Virgin Islands for not complying with court orders to transfer inmates with mental illness to a psychiatric hospital. The inmates have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, and have been imprisoned for years without any criminal charges or access to appropriate mental health care.
"The Virgin Islands is the only jurisdiction in the nation that indefinitely imprisons individuals who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity," said Eric Balaban, Senior Staff Counsel of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, who represents inmates in the federal civil rights lawsuit Carty v. DeJongh. "These people are being punished for their mental illness, which is not only unconstitutional, but is also inhumane."
The ACLU said five people remain in jail without adequate treatment despite being found not guilty by reason of insanity.
According to the Associated Press, V.I. Attorney General Vincent Frazer said Gov. John deJongh Jr. and his administration have been looking for another facility to hold the mentally ill prisoners.
"Unfortunately, the Virgin Islands doesn't have a hospital or a long-term facility for these persons," Frazer told the AP. "In the meantime, treatment is being provided as the law demands and we are continuing to look for places where we can place them."
In February 2007, U.S. District Judge Stanley Brotman found the government in contempt of court for violating his transfer order.
The ACLU is also requesting an overhaul of the health care system at the Virgin Islands Criminal Justice Complex (CJC), and is calling on Judge Brotman to appoint a receiver to rebuild the correctional health care system. According to psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Metzner, who has been monitoring the CJC’s mental health services for three years, the inmates at the CJC are forced to endure unnecessary suffering due to grossly inadequate mental health care.
In a report filed with the court last week, Metzner described the failing health care system in detail, citing numerous cases where the inmates’ health is deteriorating as a result of the abysmal care they receive.
"More drastic intervention is necessary to implement the desperately needed changes and remedy the significant mental health system problems" at the Criminal Justice Complex, Metzner wrote in the report. "Seriously mentally ill inmates have needlessly suffered" as a result of the government’s failure to abide by the court’s remedial orders, Metzner wrote.
"The health care system at CJC is abysmal and while the government is refusing to abide by the court’s orders, inmates are needlessly suffering," said Balaban. "The government should be forced to comply with the court’s orders, and contempt fines are the last tool available to end the anguish that these mentally ill inmates are suffering."
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