SC inmates with mental illness abused by staff, psychiatrist tells lawmakers
Before Dr. Pamela Crawford left the S.C. Department of Corrections in 2014, the staff psychiatrist was singing praises about the significantly improved mental health programs that had been employed at one of the state’s two women’s prisons.
But when Crawford returned to Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in May, she was taken aback at how conditions for the prison’s mentally ill population had deteriorated, she said Wednesday, testifying before a Corrections oversight panel in the S.C. House.
What she saw, Crawford told lawmakers, was “neglect and abuse.”
“I was absolutely appalled at what I saw when I came to the department,” said Crawford, who currently works as a contract psychiatrist at Camille Graham, not as a department employee. In total, Crawford has worked for the department for more than eight years, she said.
Crawford testified Wednesday to the various abuses she had documented since her return to the women’s prison, including punishing patients who are experiencing a mental health crisis and using solitary-like conditions with incarcerated women with developmental disabilities or mental illnesses.
Crawford testified that women at Camille Graham, which is located in Columbia, were being deprived of proper feminine hygiene products and mattresses when they reported suicidal thoughts or were experiencing a psychotic break. She added that some were placed in a crisis cell by themselves, and guards were ordered not to speak to them.
Hundreds of patients had not been seen by a mental health professional in an appropriate time frame, Crawford said, and many had gone undiagnosed. Some women who had been receiving treatment for years were suddenly removed from the mental health case load, she added.
“Patients that I’d had for years that had schizophrenia, no question, were not on mental health (treatments),” Crawford said. “Their diagnosis had been revised.”
Additionally, the department did not find enough beds available in hospital-like settings to treat the most severely mentally ill patients, Crawford said. Earlier this year, she had three patients in need of hospitalization, but only one available bed.
The alleged abuses caused the incarcerated women with mental illnesses to deteriorate, Crawford said. Some women did not report mental health issues or suicidal thoughts for fear of the mistreatment, she added.
“I had treated some of these women for eight years — some of these very mentally ill women — and to see how they deteriorated and how there was a lack of treatment for very sick people, it was startling,” she said.
Prisons Director Bryan Stirling, who was appointed to lead the agency in 2013, said he was taken aback when heard about the alleged abuses.
“I was so appalled and shocked that this could happen,” Stirling told legislators Wednesday. “There’s no excuse for this.”
A history of abuse
Crawford’s testimony marks the latest example of challenges that Corrections is facing in meeting the needs of its population with mental illnesses. As one of the state’s largest mental health treatment providers — with nearly a quarter of its population diagnosed with illnesses — Corrections has long struggled to provide basic and humane mental health care.
In 2014, the Department was ordered to participate in a settlement with lawyers who brought a class action lawsuit against Corrections over poor mental health care. The judge in the case, Michael Baxley, ruled that mentally ill inmates in state prisons were dying “for lack of basic mental health care, and hundreds more remain substantially at risk for serious injury, mental decompensation and profound, permanent mental illness.”
Since the settlement was reached, the Department of Corrections has been under the scrutiny of an implementation panel, which inspects the department’s practices every few months and formulates a report. SCDC has struggled to reach full compliance with about two-thirds of the areas outlined in the settlement. The panel’s last report was released in March.
In November, members of the panel wrote that they have “grave concerns that SCDC is highly unlikely, if not completely unable, to meet the conditions and requirements.”
Crawford said after she documented the alleged abuses, she reported them to Corrections administrators. Officials made productive changes within Camille Graham’s mental health unit, including transferring some staff outside of the unit, Crawford said.
Department officials also reviewed more than 600 crisis orders from prisons across the state to make sure the alleged abuses weren’t happening at other facilities, Deputy Director of Health Services Terre Marshall said. She said the review did not turn up issues at any facilities other than Camille Graham from May to July.
Administration officials also began providing the appropriate feminine hygiene products to inmates in crisis as well, Crawford said.
“I would have to say they were appalled as well and were not aware of this,” Crawford said, adding “It’s going to take a long time to get this back where it needs to (be).”
Stirling said the department continues to struggle to find enough beds to regularly house inmates who need to be in a hospital-like setting. Crawford suggested moving inmates to Corrections’ nearby Gillium Psychiatric Hospital, but that is a men’s facility, and Stirling said he did not want to house men with women.
“We need more. We’d like to get more. But we’re competing with states, I’m told, like Hawaii, who are sending people,” Stirling said. “There are just not the beds in America.”
Officials also contacted the State Law Enforcement Division the day after hearing about the allegations, and SLED investigated the alleged abuses, Stirling said.
On Thursday, SLED confirmed the agency’s investigation did not find enough evidence to charge anyone with a criminal offense.
Lawmakers ‘appalled’
Legislators were horrified after hearing the testimony Wednesday morning.
“The most vulnerable individuals with mental illness … are the patients that we’re talking about who are incarcerated. And they’re not getting the proper supply that they need to function as a decent human being would have,” Rep. Robert Williams, D-Darlington, said. “I do find that striking and appalling.”
Rep. Joe Jefferson, D-Berkeley, called for more funding “to protect these individuals.” Crawford also called for more oversight and better leadership at the prison.
Rep. Chaundra Dillard, the only female legislator on the subcommittee, was particularly concerned about inmates not receiving the proper feminine hygiene products.
“What you have shared with us, it really is disturbing,” the Greenville Democrat said.
Reps. Jeff Johnson, R-Horry, and Gary Clary, R-Pickens, agreed that the abuses were “appalling.”
Rep. Micah Caskey, R-Lexington, expressed concern that high-level administrators at the department were not aware of the alleged abuse for years. He asked if there could be a pattern with officials not being aware of issues outside of the reported abuse.
“I’m left with the fear that there are many issues that are not brought to your attention,” Caskey told department officials.
