TALLON: I smile a lot...
[laughs]
to be honest.
I'm not an angry person, not
not like how they said I am.
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My name is Tallon Satiacum.
- 27182 inmate
at SCORE County Jail.
I got fetal alcohol syndrome, bipolar...
it's just a list.
[music]
KAYLEY: My name is Kayley Bebber, and I'm
a staff attorney at Disability Rights Washington.
I work on the AVID Jail Project.
Since the beginning of our program
we've met with hundreds of inmates with mental
health issues.
Many jails that we speak with
don't think that jail is an appropriate place
for someone with mental health issues,
they aren't set up to be treatment facilities,
but at the same time, that's where many people are.
That's an unfortunate reality,
and so that's why there's a number of safeguards
in place for people with mental illness in jails.
So, when someone comes into the jail,
who has a mental health issue,
jail policy requires that there's
health assessment with a mental health screening
within two weeks.
That didn't happen in Tallon's case.
So, we met Tallon Satiacum in late spring,
early summer of 2015.
I requested Tallon's jail and medical records,
so I looked over those.
He reported his symptoms, and his diagnosis,
the fact that he's been taking medication
about one month after he'd been at the jail,
and it wasn't until another month after that
that he actually had the mental health screening,
and started receiving his medication.
TALLON: I told them
I needed pills.
I needed medication, basically.
Nobody listened.
KAYLEY: His symptoms kept getting worse and worse.
He kept exhibiting behavior
that appeared to be related to symptoms of
his mental health issues.
The jail, instead of responding with
treatment, responded with punishment,
after punishment, after punishment.
He received thirteen formal disciplinary infractions,
and he had twenty documented informal disciplinary
issues.
TALLON: They were infracting me
for every little thing.
I could yell at 'em
and it'd be an infraction.
KAYLEY: The sanctions that he received included
some minor things like losing commissary
to more serious punishments
like being placed in solitary confinement
At first was only for maybe one day
and then it was for ten days, and then for 30 days
and then he was permanently placed
in solitary confinement.
TALLON: I'm isolated. I don't have nobody
to talk to.
It's just, just me and my wall.
They would keep me in there for 72 hours, at times.
I was getting angry, frustrated.
Felt like, what they were doing, was picking on me.
KAYLEY: There's no evidence in Tallon's records
that indicate that mental health staff
were consulted about
the appropriateness of his disciplinary sanctions,
even though the jail's own policy
states: That the disciplinary process shall consider
whether an inmate's
mental disabilities or mental illness contributed
to the inmate's behavior when determining
what type of discipline, if any,
should be imposed.
TALLON: Here, they don't even care.
That's how I feel.
KAYLEY: We reached out to the jail,
we were getting ready to present Tallon's story
in this video, and the jail made a valid point.
That it's difficult for
jails to always know what someone's
mental health and medical needs and history are,
because they rely on inmate's reporting- self-reporting.
But, that's exactly why
most jails, including this jail,
have policies in place that provide for
multiple different times and ways in which
inmates and staff can report mental
health concerns, and in any case,
he did after one month and nothing was done.
TALLON: I needed to get back on my meds.
I needed to get back to me being sane,
and not goin' insane.
KAYLEY: So, after two months he finally had his
psychiatric medications. After you got his medication,
he received drastically fewer disciplinary infractions
TALLON: The pills that they got me on now
it changed me. It made me calm. I been
just doin', doin' good, and uh,
just tryin' to maintain.
KAYLEY: This is not unique to this jail or to Tallon's case.
This is a problem that we see in
both jails that we go to with the AVID Jail Project,
and in jails around the country.
So, what we'd like to see,
it's not anything radical. We'd like to see them
follow their policies
that provide these protections.
Inmates with mental health issues shouldn't have to be
subject to harsher punishment than other inmates
solely based on their disability
and their mental health condition.
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