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.

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