Tenn. inmate's mutilation highlights prison mental care woes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee death row inmate Henry Hodges' fellow prisoner Jon Hall warned long ago that he was at risk due to severe neglect by prison authorities, having spent three decades in solitary confinement with very little human contact or interaction.

In a federal lawsuit Hall filed in 2019 complaining that he too had been in solitary for nearly six years with no viable way to leave, he said of Hodges: “He’s suffered the most adverse unecessary & wanton neglect, deprivals, & mistreatment I’ve seen on death row. It’s a miracle he’s not committed suicide.”

The warning went unheeded, and last month Hodges cut off his own penis during what his lawyer called a “psychiatric disturbance.”

Hodges’ self-mutilation was an extreme incident but not without precedent in U.S. penitentiaries: Texas inmate Andre Thomas plucked out one of his eyes five days after his 2004 arrest for murdering his wife and children, and while on death row in 2009, he removed his remaining eye and told prison officials he ate it.

Although most cases fall short of those grisly examples, they underscore the significant, growing and unaddressed mental health care needs of prisoners.

A study released last year from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics that compiled data from 2016 found 41% of federal and state prisoners reported a history of mental illness, and 13% had experienced serious psychological distress over the previous 30 days. Among the latter group, only 41% of state prisoners said they were currently receiving any kind of mental health treatment. The treatment rate for federal prisoners was even lower, at just 26%.

“Our prisons are not set up to provide mental health care, and they don’t do it very well,” said Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at the University...