PLATTSBURGH — New York has become the first state in the nation to create a Residential Mental Health Unit for inmates with serious mental illness and disciplinary confinement sanctions.
The 100-bed unit opened at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County this week.
The new program, developed by the Department of Correctional Services and Office of Mental Health, will serve inmates with serious mental illness through effective treatment interventions.
The unit was created following a 2007 civil suit filed by Disability Advocates Inc., a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Officials said the state-of-the-art unit is the most comprehensive and complex mental health prison treatment program developed in the United States in the past 20 years.
An existing 57,000-square-foot building at Marcy Correctional was transformed for the unit to provide treatment in a secure environment to inmates with serious mental illnesses and a disciplinary sanction of more than 30 days, which otherwise would be served in 23-hour-per-day confinement.
"This cutting-edge program represents government at its best by providing a long-term approach to a difficult problem that is both humane and cost-effective," Gov. David A. Paterson said in a news release.
"New York is once again leading the nation, in this case by creating a holistic environment for the treatment and care of perhaps the most challenging population within the state prison system."
"We have met the challenge of caring for the thousands of inmates with mental illness in our state prison system head-on for the benefit of not only the offenders themselves, but our staff and public safety," DOCS Commissioner Brian Fischer said.
"This new program specifically concerns itself with offenders who have demonstrated serious problems adhering to prison rules, often as the result of their mental health difficulties. The goal of both DOCS and OMH is to assist the offenders in understanding their illnesses and how to overcome the problems that often led them into conflicts."
A similar 60-bed unit is expected to open at Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County by 2012.
Inmates will be phased into the Marcy Correctional Unit and nearly a dozen have already been processed in.
The unit is aimed at trying to transition participants back into the general prison population or another prison-based mental health program where the inmate can function more effectively.
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