California is providing haphazard, inadequate psychiatric treatment to its most severely mentally ill inmates, according to a new report by a federal court official.
The report filed in federal court on Friday by special master Matthew Lopes found some patients were drugged instead of counseled, returned to prison too soon and rarely received one-on-one therapy.
The Los Angeles Times reports Lopes overall describes a fractured, understaffed system at two state psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric hospitals run within four state prisons.
Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, declined to comment on the report's general conclusions.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ordered the special master's report last year by after he ruled that state officials were failing to provide inmate care that met levels required by the Constitution.
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
