News Local/State

Indiana ACLU: Prisons Not Complying With Court Order

 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana says state Department of Correction hasn't done enough to help mentally ill prisoners since a federal judge ordered the agency to improve their treatment.

A judge has ordered the department to discuss its plans in detail at a court hearing Wednesday.

The ACLU says in court documents that the plans the prison agency has filed have been impressive, but little has been done to make the improvements happen.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt in December found that Indiana's treatment of its nearly 6,000 mentally ill inmates was inadequate and ordered the state to do more.

The Indiana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness says many mentally ill people end up in prison because they can't get treatment outside.