HOUSTON — A Houston-area jail has cut its use of solitary confinement in half nearly five years after investigators found an inmate needing mental health treatment was ignored for weeks in a filthy cell.
Harris County jail officials credit the decrease to two mental health and diversion programs and a decision to stop punishing rule-breakers with solitary, the Houston Chronicle reported . The number of inmates isolated in so-called administrative separation dropped from 240 in 2014 to 122 in March, according to sheriff’s office data.
“We don’t use (administrative separation) as a punishment for violating jail rules — but previously that was an option,” said Maj. John Martin of the sheriff’s office. “Just discontinuing that practice has reduced the number of people in ad sep.”
Figures show just over 1 percent of the jail’s population is held in solitary.
The jail started tracking data about inmates in solitary weeks after KTRK-TV released photos of inmate Terry Goodwin’s cell full of human waste and bugs.
The jail created rehabilitative mental health units in 2015 and 2017 to offer a path out of isolation. The unit established in 2015 offers inmates programming and cognitive behavioral therapy-based groups, which focus on communication, medication management and anger management.
The unit launched last year focuses on inmates with more serious and persistent mental illness. Detainees are closely supervised, given TVs to help stave off boredom and offered group sessions.
Mindsets are shifting in Texas regarding the purpose of jail and incarceration, said Jason Spencer, the sheriff’s office spokesman.
He said, “There’s an understanding even among strong conservatives that people who are in jail or in prison are going to be back out and be in society at some point, and we’re better off if we’ve treated them like human beings and armed them with skills and strategies for becoming productive members of our community.”
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