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A committee focused on civil rights says the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services isn’t adequately meeting the mental health needs of incarcerated Nebraskans.
The Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights works to investigate possible civil rights violations.
In a report released last month, the committee says there’s no defined system of care for mental health within the Nebraska prison system.
There was no mechanism for the inmates to effectively convey if they were having any kinds of mental health issues, no systematic means of doing it," said committee chairperson Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado. "And then a lot of times this would compel individuals to act out and then they’d find themselves in solitary confinement."
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Chief of Staff Laura Strimple declined to comment on the report in a reply to an email sent to six staff members.
"Our leadership team is currently focused on COVID-19 management," Strimple wrote. "We don't have time currently to reply to this report."
But Director Scott Frakes said in a press conference last Friday he is confident in the level of health care available, which includes 130 full-time mental health care staff:
"I honestly believe that right now we’re offering greater access to health care than many, if not most citizens, can get to right now," Frakes said.
The report points to prison overcrowding and confusion about policies and procedures as contributing to the problem, as well as an overall lack of behavioral health care options in the state.
Benjamin-Alvarado says he doesn’t want this issue to fall by the wayside because of the pandemic and says it’s more important than ever to address the disparities.
"Now you're adding a whole other level of stress and anxiety to the existing stress and anxiety that people who are incarcerated already are confronting," he said.
The committee’s report outlines several recommendations for federal and state government. They mostly request enforcing laws and regulations already in place, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.
The committee also recommends the Nebraska Legislature "continue to expand Medicare access," and "provide equitable funding for mental and physical health services to respond to the absence of funding in rural areas of the state." And it requests the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees conduct a study to estimate the cost of "fully addressing the mental health needs of incarcerated individuals in the state."
The report has been sent to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Benjamin-Alvarado will present the committee's findings and recommendations in May or June.
Read the full report online here.