A lawsuit has been filed against the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, alleging that prisoners with diagnosed mental illnesses are being transferred to the prison by Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)officials, directly violating the bureau’s policies against housing such inmates there.
The Denver Post reports that “the suit claims that the prison then basically stops treating those inmates’ mental illnesses – including sometimes taking the inmates off prescribed anti-psychotic drugs – making it difficult for the inmates to ever prove they can be transferred out of Supermax.” The report also said that the suit alleges that the strict security of the nation’s most locked-down federal prison often worsens a prisoners’ mental health issues.
The lawsuit states, “The BOP turns a blind eye to the needs of the mentally ill at (Supermax) and to deplorable conditions of confinement that are inhumane to these prisoners. No civilized society treats its mentally ill citizens with such deliberate indifference to their plight.”
The lawsuit seeks “a court order requiring a reformation of the mental health care system at ADX (Supermax), among other relief.”
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons declined comment on the allegations, saying the agency’s policy is not to discuss pending litigation.
