California announced plans to add a 40-bed psychatric hospital to its death row at San Quentin to treat deeply disturbed inmates in need of 24-hour care for mental illness. In 2013 a federal judge ordered the state to provide death-row inmates access to inpatient psychiatric treatment. Following court-ordered mental evaluations, the state identified 37 men with severe mental illnesses requiring full-time care. Attorney Michael Bien, who argued the case that prompted the action, said, “The reality is these guys are going to live in this place for a long time, and you need to see they get the care they need.” California has the largest death row in the country (741 inmates) and has not had an execution since 2006 because of problems with its lethal injection protocol. Suicide among death row inmates was one of the reasons for the court review.
(P. St. John, “San Quentin plans psychiatric hospital for death row inmates,” Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2014). See Mental Illness and Time on Death Row.
