On July 13, 2007 Nancy Jean Calder was found dead in her cell at Muncy State Correctional Institution.   The PA DOC Monitor has received reports that Calder requested mental health treatment prior to her death, stating that she was hearing voices.   Despite her needs, and established history of mental illness, Calder was denied adequate treatment by prison staff.   Perhaps that as because, as one article states [1]:

In prison, [prisoners'] deeds are punished, but mental health rehabilitation is minimal at best. When [prisoners] get out or are eligible for parole, offenders with these crimes on their records find it very difficult to get supported housing or residential mental health treatment.

Which inevitably leads mentally ill inmates back to prison, where their health needs are further ignored.   In the case of Nancy Jean Calder, the judge who sentenced her to 2 ½ to 6 years did not seem to consider her history of mental illness, only her act of arson – which she committed upon her own property.   Since the judge simplified her case to mere arson, she was sent to a state prison that houses violent female offenders instead of a hospital.  

Sadly, Calder's daughter, Amanda, believes her mother's suicide was not intentional, but a cry for help [2].   Amanda notes that her mother requested books, complaining that “there's nothing to read here [at Muncy].”

This incident has made it even clearer that state correctional institutions are not concerned the slightest with rehabilitation or education.   They are not concerned with education, because while prison libraries may contain useful books, access to them is made nearly impossible.   And they are not concerned with the mentally ill, because prisoners are denied treatment.  

Unfortunately Calder's story is not unique.   Another inmate with a history of mental illness [3] describes being,

. . . shot with a riot gun and held in a cell for three to four months with nothing but one pair of underwear. He described being strapped down for 48 hours with a 10-to-15-minute break.  

Stripping a mentally ill man of his dignity, as described above, is not a form of rehabilitation.   When the inmate above was asked what he will do after release he stated he had no where to go, and will most likely wander the street to “get drunk and find a girl.”

Is this the best that the PA DOC can do?   The PA DOC Monitor believes that more can be done.   Visit our prisoner outreach page [4] for more information.