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Mental health patients in prison?

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In New Hampshire, individuals with mental illness who “present a serious likelihood of danger to himself or to others” may be committed to the secure psychiatric unit in the state prison.   

Rep. Renny Cushing is proposing a 2016 bill that would end this practice for individuals who have never been charged with a crime.  Instead, New Hampshire would have to send those patients to a secure hospital in another state or build its own secure psychiatric facility. 

“I’ve been outraged (that) we, in the year 2015, sent people to prison when they’re sick instead of to a hospital,” said Cushing

Housing patients with mental illness alongside prisoners can make it difficult to develop and administer treatment plans.  It also makes the state ineligible for federal Medicaid reimbursement for those patients. 

On the other hand, the state psychiatric hospital says it may be difficult to keep patients and staff safe without the ability to make quick emergency transfers to the secure psychiatric unit in the state prison. 

Prisoners and patients also mingle in other treatment environments, such as drug rehabilitation facilities. 

Do you think patients should be kept out of the secure psychiatric unit in the state prison? Comment below.

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