Former Death Row Prisoner Craigen Armstrong Pioneers ​“Vital” Mental Illness Treatment Program in L.A. Jail

A new sto­ry by the L.A. Times high­lights for­mer California death row pris­on­er Craigen Armstrong’s instru­men­tal role in build­ing a peer-pris­on­er men­tal health treat­ment pro­gram in the Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility, an effort which has helped hun­dreds of pris­on­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness. While await­ing retri­al, Mr. Armstrong estab­lished the ​“men­tal health assis­tant” role to sup­port and treat fel­low pris­on­ers, and has devel­oped train­ing mate­ri­als for jails and pris­ons across the coun­try to repli­cate his program’s success. 

Mr. Armstrong was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­ders of three broth­ers in gang-relat­ed con­flicts in 2001. He main­tains that he is inno­cent of one of the mur­ders, and the oth­er two were com­mit­ted in self-defense. In 2016, the California Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly over­turned his con­vic­tions based on the tri­al judge’s deci­sion to remove a juror for ​“fail­ing to delib­er­ate.” The Court held that ​“the record does not show as a demon­stra­ble real­i­ty that the juror was unable to per­form her duty,” and ​“the error com­pels rever­sal of the judg­ment in its entire­ty.” Mr. Armstrong was then moved from death row in San Quentin State Prison to the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail to await retri­al or nego­ti­ate a plea. He joined the exist­ing men­tal health pro­gram at the adja­cent Twin Towers Facility, which he per­ceived as safer, because it offered priv­i­leges and pri­va­cy in exchange for assist­ing with tasks such as clean­ing and distributing food. 

However, Mr. Armstrong soon found a pas­sion for men­tal health coun­sel­ing and ded­i­cat­ed him­self to expand­ing the fledg­ing pro­gram. Twin Towers hous­es over two thou­sand pris­on­ers, with over half suf­fer­ing from seri­ous men­tal ill­ness — it has been called the ​“largest men­tal insti­tu­tion in the coun­try.” With fel­low pris­on­er Adrian Berumen, Mr. Armstrong expand­ed the role from an aide-type posi­tion to a peer coun­selor who forms strong bonds with the res­i­dents, devel­ops ther­a­peu­tic and enrich­ment activ­i­ties, and deesca­lates con­flicts. They recruit­ed new pris­on­ers and devel­oped a train­ing cur­ricu­lum. They also made con­sci­en­tious changes to human­ize the par­tic­i­pants, refer­ring to the men they helped as ​“patients” and them­selves as ​“men­tal health assis­tants.” The pair coau­thored a book, The Solution: Mental Health Assistants, released in 2020, and shared their expe­ri­ences with uni­ver­si­ties and law enforcement groups. 

Local offi­cials have laud­ed Mr. Armstrong’s work. ​“I’m real­ly impressed with the inno­va­tion of the pro­gram and the impact that it has on our incar­cer­at­ed com­mu­ni­ty who suf­fer from men­tal ill­ness,” said Sheriff Robert Luna of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department at a recent jail event hon­or­ing the men­tal health assis­tants. According to the pro­gram web­site, a 2019 cor­rec­tions sur­vey found a 600% decrease in self-harm inci­dents in the program’s unit com­pared to oth­er units in the jail. The Board of Supervisors vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly this sum­mer to expand the pro­gram six-fold by 2025. ​“This is a vital pro­gram,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis. ​“This type of assis­tance is so crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant. It will save lives. It will save costs.” 

The pro­gram has ben­e­fit­ed par­tic­i­pants, jail employ­ees, and men­tal health assis­tants alike. ​“With men­tal ill­ness, it takes trust, and this place makes you more recep­tive to accept the help you need,” said a patient. ​“It is like fam­i­ly here,” said anoth­er. Deputies report­ed less stress as the men­tal health assis­tants helped the patients find sta­bil­i­ty and progress. And Mr. Armstrong finds com­fort and moti­va­tion in the work. ​“A lot of us take these paths in life, we go down these destruc­tive paths…we may be respon­si­ble for harm, but it real­ly is a lack of self-worth,” Mr. Armstrong told men­tal health assis­tants at the recent event. ​“We put togeth­er our own train­ing and our cur­ricu­lum so that when guys come over, they’re pre­pared to be in this envi­ron­ment, and not only just be here but real­ly thrive and per­sist and learn to grow.” He sees this type of pro­gram as ​“the rem­e­dy or the solu­tion to recidi­vism and reduce incarceration.”