Reforming Mental Health: Efforts to expand mental health services need to get on track

The group of lawmakers working on that issue—formally the Joint Subcommittee to Study Mental Health Services in the Commonwealth in the 21st Century, but commonly called the Deed’s Commission—has made tremendous progress since it was first organized in 2014. The crown jewel of their efforts is a package of reforms that could dramatically change how Virginians access mental health services through Community Services Boards (CSB) generally the organization that administer them at the local level.

We call on the Deed’s Commission and the legislative assembly to examine prison Solitary Confinement practices. Solitary confinement is torture. It jeopardizes public safety, wastes taxpayer dollars and can cause serious, lifelong psychological harm and trauma. Mentally healthy persons going into prison should come out better; not worse.

Virginia needs to stop the state’s inhumane use of solitary confinement. Thanks to the relentless work by state leaders Virginia stands on the brink if making a lasting difference in how we care for those struggling with mental illness. Now is the time to follow through to meet the constructive and rehabilitative purposes of criminal justice set forth in the statements by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; in the UN Standard Minimum Rules on the treatment of prisoners; and the US Justice Department.