The head of the troubled New York City jail system said this week it is critical to send mentally ill inmates to treatment programs instead of a lockup.
The department of corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, told state lawmakers on Thursday that Rikers Island is poorly equipped to be a mental health treatment center. The primary goal, one he shares with the medical staff, is to keep staff and inmates safe, he said.
“Violence at Rikers Island the past five or six years has gone through the roof,” Ponte said, adding that assaults on his medical staff have tripled.
Dr Homer Venters, head of the jail’s health services, testified alongside Ponte. He said admission medical screenings done on every incoming inmate show about 25% have mental illnesses, though that diagnosis applies to about 38% of the daily population of about 11,500. Those inmates tend to stay twice as long.
Ponte said they have taken steps, like limiting solitary confinement, to improve treatment at Rikers, but acknowledged many issues remain. The city has also recently established some courts, including one in Manhattan, focused on handling cases involving the mentally ill.
“We’ve become the de facto mental hospitals,” Ponte said of the jails. “Diversion is critical.”