A jury in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico recently awarded Steven Slevin $22 million in damages for his 22 months in solitary confinement without adequate care.  The plaintiff’s trial brief stated,

Expert testimony will describe how the effects of prolonged solitary confinement coupled with a lack of medical care caused Plaintiff to enter a dissociative delirium and resulted in his current PTSD diagnosis. Witness testimony will describe how Defendant Barela used the solitary cells of Fox 2 pod, as a place to house the mentally ill. Witnesses will describe how the mentally ill inmates in Fox 2 were confined to their cells for long periods of time, how they did not get adequate medical care and how deplorable the conditions were in that pod. Witness testimony will describe how there were more cells in Fox 2 than hours in the day and as such it was impossible to give each inmate his one hour of “recreation” per day. The Defendants’ own expert witness will testify to the inhumane conditions of Plaintiff’s confinement.

For more on the incarceration of the mentally ill see Slaw.

Slevin – Complaint

Slevin_FirstAmendedAnswer

Slevin – Trial Brief (P)

Slevin – Trial Brief (D)

Slevin – Jury Verdict

Dr. Richard O’Reilly, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at UWO, and Director of
Research and Education at Regional Mental Health Care London/St. Thomas, spoke to the health law class today.

His topic was “Law and Psychiatry: always two solitudes?”

Omar raised a study from 2006, Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test and Extension of Self-Determination Theory, which indicated that law school had a detrimental effect on the mental health of law students. The reason for this was lack of institutional supports.

The study was raised to indicate that mental health issues are not just something we might potentially see with our clients, but among our peers as well. Negative perceptions formed in law school often translated into similar challenges in a legal career.

Another article in the Times Online from earlier this month indicated that long hours and stress pushes lawyers to drink and do drugs more.  One lawyer was quoted in the article as saying,

The legal profession, unlike other classic professions such as medicine and teaching, does not give a damn, as long as you are profitable.

The place to address these issues is early though, in the law school.  This means that school administrators should be responsible for instituting support and counselling programs, and perhaps restructuring schools so that they are less competitive and more cooperative.