Settlement increases mental health care for inmates

The Department of Corrections will provide more mental health care to some of its inmates, under an agreement reached this week with a former prisoner.

The nonprofit organization Disability Rights Vermont represented the inmate, who was held in segregation for several months in 2014 after he was identified as needing psychiatric care.

AJ Ruben, an attorney with Disability Rights Vermont, says the settlement sets new standards for how inmates receive care in prison. “This agreement will make it so, twice a day, a mental health provider will have to work with an inmate, and try to get him out of his cell. And once a week he’ll be seen by someone who can prescribe medication,” Ruben says. “So it’s a really huge improvement over what our client experienced.”

Ruben says his client, who has developmental disabilities, was held in prison for more than two months before he was able to receive adequate mental health care.

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