Federal Jury Awards $5.4 Million for Solitary Confinement Prisoner with Schizophrenia

OPEN MINDS, The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Industry News On March 10, 1999 a federal jury levied $5.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages against the Sparta, Wisconsin jail administrator and supervising sheriff for depriving Scott Lawson, who has schizophrenia, of mental health treatment while he was in the jail and holding him in solitary confinement for more than 65-days. The amount appears to be “the largest damage award to a person with a mental illness for lack of mental health treatment in a jail,” according to Linda Priebe, senior attorney with the Bazelon Center . . .