At the end of this story, please find a number of articles InDepthNH.org has reported about the Secure Psychiatric Unit. Sign up for our free newsletter here.
By Nancy West, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The mood among lawmakers has changed dramatically over the last three years that InDepthNH.org has been investigating the state’s decades-long practice of locking up mentally ill people in the prison’s Secure Psychiatric Unit even if they haven’t been convicted of a crime.
In the past, some lawmakers said it was less than ideal, but the best New Hampshire could do for those who were civilly committed, but deemed too dangerous to themselves or others to be housed at the New Hampshire Hospital, the state’s psychiatric hospital.
Others said they saw no problem commingling mentally ill people at the prison psych unit who hadn’t been convicted of a crime with mentally ill criminals, although opponents call it unconstitutional.
Ken Snow, a former state Democratic state representative from Manchester, last year echoed the then-common sentiment that the mental health system in New Hampshire is so deeply troubled – with many people waiting in local hospital emergency rooms every day for a psych bed – that the relatively small number of people at SPU who are not being held because of a crime will have to wait. There are anywhere from five to 16 such patients locked up in prison on any given day, according to corrections officials.
It would be too costly to build a new facility, they said. Snow took it further.
“It’s a pretty good facility,” Snow said. “If you listen to the family members, it sounds like a den of iniquity, but I have not seen that.”
Cushing’s crusade
Now, a number of lawmakers have joined 
Andrew Butler of Hollis is pictured at the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the men’s prison in Concord during an interview with InDepthNH.org.[/caption]
Andrew is expecting to be released in three weeks, a major shift from what he was told before speaking publicly about his son’s problems. “They said they could keep him forever,” Butler said.
Butler hopes it is true that his son will be released soon, but is worried. He says the state is still force-medicating Andrew and since the state removed him as Andrew’s guardian, he has no power to make decisions regarding his son’s medication.
During a recent interview with InDepthNH.org, Andrew Butler also said he expected to be home with his father soon. Andrew said he was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and was prescribed Depakote and other medications. His problems started last July after taking the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, Andrew said.
Andrew’s dad
“He’s doing better,” Douglas Butler said on Sunday after his second contact visit with Andrew on Saturday since he was transferred from the New Hampshire Hospital to the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the prison in January.
“They want him out of there now. They don’t like the publicity,” Butler said.
He wants Andrew home, too, and plans to bring him to the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., for a second opinion.
In the visiting room Saturday, Andrew stood up causing the corrections officer to yell at him to sit down, Butler said. It’s sitting by as his son is being treated as a prisoner that most upsets him.
Andrew Butler told InDepthNH.org that he has been tasered and pepper sprayed at the unit, but remains cheerful even being locked up with mentally ill convicted criminals.
“I met some really good people who killed people before and I would never have guessed they did anything like that. Everyone seems pretty chill,” Andrew said.
Federal petition
Bloomenthal argued in the habeas corpus petition that Butler is being denied his Constitutional rights by being locked up in prison without a criminal charge or conviction.
“His present need for secure psychiatric care is not at issue. At issue is Andrew Butler’s cruel treatment and false imprisonment in a non-accredited and non-licensed facility which is prison and not a hospital. The Petitioner seeks transfer to a real licensed and accredited hospital,” Bloomenthal wrote.
State officials have said it is legal to lock up civilly committed individuals with convicted criminals who are mentally ill. Senior Assistant Attorney General Lynmarie Cusack argued the court should dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction because the Secure Psychiatric Unit isn’t a prison and because Andrew lacks standing.
Bloomenthal disagreed in an objection and both sides have until June 11 to file further briefs.
“His situation is extraordinary. He is incarcerated in a prison when he should be hospitalized. The State of New Hampshire refuses to provide adequate medical care for the Petitioner and has transferred this seriously ill person from a licensed and accredited hospital, New Hampshire Hospital, to a prison that is not a licensed and accredited hospital in violation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act,” Bloomenthal wrote.
New Hampshire has refused to provide adequate care since at least 1986 for its most needy mentally ill patients and has locked them in the State Prison for Men, she wrote.
“This includes locking mentally ill women in the Men’s Prison. Also, patients with developmental disabilities are locked away in the prison as well. The civilly committed are exposed to criminally convicted inmates,” Bloomenthal wrote. “The State of New Hampshire condones this barbaric treatment of the mentally ill and has done so for over 30 years.”
She said the state’s motion to dismiss seeks to rely on a myth that those in the unit are not in a prison. “That is belied by the fact that the unit is confined in the prison, is guarded by correction officers. Patients are forced to wear inmate uniforms and are given inmate identification numbers. Patients are locked in cages falsely named ‘treatment booths,'” Bloomenthal wrote.
Below find some of the stories Nancy West has reported about the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the men’s prison in Concord, including a look at how the rest of the country deals with mentally ill patients who are a danger to themselves or others that was made possible by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
A state of contradictions, especially if you are mentally ill
Shea-Porter Seeks Answers To Complaint To Feds About NH’s Secure Psychiatric Unit
Lawmakers Offer Hope for Reform at Prison’s Secure Psychiatric Unit
Hollis Unites To ‘Free Andrew Butler’ From NH Prison’s Secure Psychiatric Unit
Andrew Butler of Hollis: ‘I do appreciate all the support’
Sen. Avard Compares Secure Psychiatric Unit At State Prison To ‘Horror Movie’
Andrew Butler Supporters Protest Sending Non-Criminal Mentally Ill People To Prison
NH Disability Rights Center Monitoring Complaints Against Secure Psychiatric Unit
Transgender Patient: Vacate My Insanity Plea Because No Help at Secure Psychiatric Unit
Families, Advocates Speak Out Against the Secure Psychiatric Unit at NH Men’s Prison
Transgender Patient: Secure Psychiatric Unit Is About Prison, Not Treatment
Patients’ Families Allowed To Speak Only After Vote Involving Secure Psychiatric Unit
State Bans Mom From Visiting Son at Secure Psychiatric Unit For Birthday Balloon Photo
Death at NH State Prison Residential Treatment Unit Being Investigated in Concord
Son of Nashua’s Ex-Chief Still Locked Up in Psychiatric Unit For Allegedly Beating Dad
Charges Dropped Against Eric Largy in Alleged Beating of Ex-Police Chief Dad
16 Mentally Ill Patients Who Didn’t Commit Crimes Locked Up in State Prison