Mental patients locked in cells together, court told

Prison authorities are locking mentally ill state patients together in communal cells, where they often assault each other, because there is no other facility to house them. This shock confession has been made by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) in documents before the Port Elizabeth High Court.

Prison authorities also admitted that only one of 89 psychiatric patients held in prisons around the province had seen a psychiatrist in the past six months, according to an audit filed at the court. This individual was described as someone who was a danger to himself and to others.

The audit was called for by a judge as a sequel to the successful legal fight of Kwazakhele mother Phathiswa Adam, who battled for close to a year to have her son Awonke Adam, 19, released from prison.

Awonke is mentally disabled and has speech and hearing impediments. He was charged with sexual assault in 2015 but was found not to be culpable and was declared a state patient and referred to Fort England Psychiatric Hospital in Grahamstown.

However, as there was no space for him there, Awonke was sent to St Albans prison, where he was beaten, robbed, abused and tried to commit suicide. He was released in July following a court order. Fort England is the only dedicated, secure mental health facility for state patients in the Eastern Cape.

Correctional Services stated in the audit it did not have the proper facilities to keep state patients at its facilities. “The state patients are incarcerated in general cells with other mentally ill persons and are prone to fight among each other, ” the court documents stated.

“They do not receive treatment as often as they should, if at all. They do not have access to a psychiatrist.”

While the MEC for Health, Dr Pumza Dyantyi, told parliament in March this year there were close to 300 psychiatric patients being held in prison, the audit only found 89. According to the audit, almost all psychiatric patients were in general cells. For most, there was no indication on their files if they should be regarded as a danger to themselves or to others.

The only patient who had seen a psychiatrist did so after the order to conduct the audit was made and he was described in papers before court as a “danger to himself and others”. In its response to the request by the judge for the audit, the Department of Health filed papers stating that it was planning to implement a number of interventions in the province’s mental health system.

These include the expansion of forensic services to Port Elizabeth, East London, Queenstown and Mthatha, establishing adequate chronic care beds for patients who can not be reintegrated into their communities.

In its one-year plan, the department stated that it would start building a new Elizabeth Donkin Hospital. But earlier this year department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said they did not have the money to do so. According to the court papers, the department is also planning to establish a prison mental health service within a year.

After the order to conduct the audit was made, several state patients were transferred to Fort England and Queenstown’s Komani Psychiatric Hospital. Eastern Cape Health Crisis Action Coalition spokesman Fikile Boyce said the situation was shocking and an outrageous disregard for the human rights of people suffering from mental illnesses.

“These patients must access treatment. It also shows up the horrendous shortage of psychiatrists in this province. If these patients could access psychiatric services where they lived, much of this could have been avoided,” he said.

“The fact that they are all locked up in one cell is a shocking violation of their human rights. “The prison authorities are inviting disaster and putting the lives of inmates and Correctional Services officials at risk.”

The DA’s Celeste Barker said the risk of injury or death was so great that it was shocking that officials had never applied their minds to see how they could accommodate these state patients. “We have a constitution that is feted as one of the best in the world.

Everything that is happening here is violating the Bill of Rights and it flaunts the achievement of all who suffered to achieve democracy,” she said.

The Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons, headed by retired Constitutional Court justice Johann van der Westhuizen, stated in its annual report last year that a prison was “not the ideal place to house people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses”.

“The DCS staff, inclusive of the medical staff, is not trained to deal with mentally ill inmates. “The correctional centre environment is also not suitable to ensure their safe custody and treatment , ” the report stated.