Court calls for list of mental patients in jails

PROVINCIAL Health MEC Dr Pumza Dyantyi and the Department of Justice and Correctional Services have been ordered to provide a list of psychiatric patients held in prison to the Port Elizabeth High Court by today.

The case is a sequel to the successful legal fight of Kwazakhele mother Phathiswa Adam, who struggled for close to a year to have her son, Awonke, 19, released from prison.

Awonke is mentally disabled and has speech and hearing impediments.

He was charged with sexual assault in 2015 but was found not to be culpable and was declared a state patient and referred to Fort England Psychiatric Hospital.

But because there was no space for him, he was locked up at St Albans prison.

There, he was beaten, robbed and abused to the point that he tried to commit suicide.

Fort England is the only dedicated, secure mental health facility for state patients in the Eastern Cape.

Keeping psychiatric patients in jail is regarded globally as a gross human rights violation.

According to statistics provided by Dyantyi to parliament, the Eastern Cape has a shortage of 1 600 mental health beds and close to 300 patients are being kept in prisons awaiting space in mental hospitals.

Patients needing observation have to wait on average 20 months and those needing placement at Fort England nine months.

Dyantyi said they had dedicated 30 beds at Komani Hospital in Queenstown to try to alleviate pressure on Fort England.

The Eastern Cape Department of Health and the Department of Justice and Correctional Services were ordered by the court to compile a list with the name and age of each state patient.

It was also to include when and why they were declared state patients, the prison where they were incarcerated and if they were held in a general cell, single cell or hospital facility.

The court also asked for a list of prison records showing whether any of the patients were a danger to themselves or others and whether any of them had been seen by a psychiatrist in the last six months.

Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said last week they did not have any knowledge of the audit, but he would check on the matter.