0:00:02 > 0:00:04More than a million Americans
0:00:04 > 0:00:07with mental health problems are behind bars.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10He's asleep. I don't know how he could sleep in this noise.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14Some are abused, beaten and sprayed with chemicals
0:00:14 > 0:00:17by the very people paid to look after them.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19I'm done! I'm done!
0:00:20 > 0:00:22Some have even died.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24I swear this world has gone mad.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Nobody seems to care about anybody.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Especially a person with mental illness.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33These are leg irons and this is the belly chain.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36They face indefinite periods of solitary confinement.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41It's abundantly clear that we have criminalised mental illness.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Tonight, Panorama goes behind closed doors
0:00:45 > 0:00:47to uncover America's new Bedlam.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49SHOUTING
0:01:05 > 0:01:07In a prison in Michigan, a man is in trouble.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10This is Tim Souders.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14He's being taken to solitary for breaking prison rules.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19The guards are filming all this, as is standard practice.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Tim was jailed after stealing paintball guns.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26He is bipolar and suicidal.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31From the very first, Tim started going downhill.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35He started writing letters home about how difficult it was.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38He wasn't seeing a doctor regularly, a psychiatrist.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41Tim was complaining he couldn't sleep,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44that he was having trouble with his medication.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46A heat wave is on.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Tim flooded his cell,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02so the guards began to chain him to a concrete slab.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11By the next day, Tim's clothes were soaked in urine.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14He'd tried to rip them off. He became delusional.
0:02:21 > 0:02:2311 more hours passed without a break.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26I want pictures before I'm going to answer.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30That evening, Tim somehow freed his arms.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32The guards chained him back down.
0:02:34 > 0:02:35No handling! No!
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Did you hear me? Did you... Hear me?!
0:02:42 > 0:02:45On the fifth day of this, Tim was moved to another cell.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50He was fed with his chains on.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56We couldn't treat an animal the way they treated Tim.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00They would put the food on his chest
0:03:00 > 0:03:04and he would try to move his hand to be able to feed his mouth.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07And in the video, it shows his food
0:03:07 > 0:03:10falling off his chest, onto the floor.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17That afternoon, Tim died of heat and dehydration.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24His mother didn't find out how he had died until weeks later.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27The Department of Corrections kept telling us
0:03:27 > 0:03:29Tim had passed away in his sleep.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33They never told us he was in observation,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36they never told us that he was in four-point restraints.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39They never admitted to anything.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47Eight years later and few Americans have heard of Tim Souders.
0:03:47 > 0:03:48In 21st-century America,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52you'd think his death would've changed the system.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55But we have heard otherwise. And set out to investigate.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58First stop, Chicago.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03And Cook County Jail.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Home to 10,000 inmates.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08We were given access.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Every morning, about 250 new inmates
0:04:12 > 0:04:15are processed into the largest jail complex in America.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20But they are not quite the criminals you might expect.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24By accident, this jail is also now
0:04:24 > 0:04:27one of the largest mental institutions in the country.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Do you hear voices when you are very, very depressed?
0:04:33 > 0:04:38Staff screen inmates to see how many have serious mental conditions.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40Today, it was 30%.
0:04:40 > 0:04:41Yesterday, it was 50.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43You are mopping up all the people
0:04:43 > 0:04:47who can't get mental health care elsewhere?
0:04:47 > 0:04:52Yes. They can't get in anywhere because there's no room.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57There's no beds, all of the community resources have dried up,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59as well as the hospitals.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Every inmate in this unit has a severe mental health problem.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10It's the new habit!
0:05:11 > 0:05:15This man told us he paces to drown out the voices in his head.
0:05:15 > 0:05:2030,000 mentally-troubled people pass through this jail every year,
0:05:20 > 0:05:22mostly for petty crimes.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25At least here in jail, they can get some care.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29But the man who runs the jail, Sheriff Dart,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32says it is no place to get well.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38It's abundantly clear that we have criminalised mental illness.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Do you think there is any psychologist that would say,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43"I am going to put you in a 4x8 room with a complete stranger
0:05:43 > 0:05:47"suffering from some mental illness different from yours,
0:05:47 > 0:05:48"feed you three meals a day
0:05:48 > 0:05:52"while you're associating with people charged with various crimes?"
0:05:52 > 0:05:55No-one in their right mind would say that's an acceptable treatment plan.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00But that's what happens frequently throughout jails in the country.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06This is a low security section of the jail.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09We are here to be shown how staff cope with mentally-ill inmates.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12But there are allegations of abuse.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Throughout the jail, there are security cameras.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Watch the officer coming around the corner.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26He has been suspended and is being prosecuted
0:06:26 > 0:06:27following an internal investigation.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35We met Isaac, a 33-year-old schizophrenic.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37As with all of those on remand,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40we are not allowed to state details of his alleged offence.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44He told us four guards assaulted him for standing up at the wrong time.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46There was a struggle.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51One guard pushed my head down really hard on, like, a metal armrest.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55I had bruises around my ankles because they shackled me
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and I had, like, a bruise over here
0:06:57 > 0:06:59and a bruise over here somewhere
0:06:59 > 0:07:01and a bruise over here.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05And when they finally took the handcuffs off,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07the handcuffs were bloody.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11The jail told us Isaac has never filed any complaint
0:07:11 > 0:07:13about the alleged incident.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16A legal case against the jail
0:07:16 > 0:07:19alleges 45 assaults by officers on inmates last year.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Many against inmates with severe mental health problems.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Most are said to have taken place behind the walls of the jail's
0:07:28 > 0:07:32two maximum-security divisions, 9 and 10.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34We were given rare access to Division 10.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41600 prisoners in this division have mental health problems.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43They can be hard to manage.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47This unit is where they are disciplined.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49SHOUTING
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Inmates call it The Hole.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Men often spend 23 hours a day locked in.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58We could film, but not speak to the inmates.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10Sorry. We'd like to talk to you, but we're not allowed to.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12The lawyers behind the class action
0:08:12 > 0:08:14have spent hundreds of hours with inmates,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16cataloguing their allegations.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21The use of pepper spray on people who are handcuffed,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24beating people who are handcuffed on the ground,
0:08:24 > 0:08:26kicking them, stomping them,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30having large numbers of officers congregate and attack detainees.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33All of that is occurring with regularity
0:08:33 > 0:08:34in Divisions 9 and 10.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47They're saying there's mould in the cell.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49The prisoners have complained to the lawyers
0:08:49 > 0:08:52of raw sewage in the cells, of filth and vermin.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54He's asleep.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56BANGING AND SHOUTING
0:08:56 > 0:08:58I don't know how he could sleep in this noise.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04We met a prisoner released from Cook County's
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Maximum Security Division in 2012.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10Kyle Pillischafske has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14He'd been driving recklessly and injured another driver.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18He says guards, angry at him for allegedly causing a power cut,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20got inmates to beat him up.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25One of the inmates just punched me in the face.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29And I fall to the side.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Because I was sitting on my bunk.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35And they just start hitting me and kicking me.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40And I ended up with my eyes swollen shut,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43my entire head basically purple.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45The prison guards basically did everything.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47In charge of everything.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52They just got a couple of lackeys with them to help out.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Cook County Jail paid Kyle compensation, suspended the guards
0:09:58 > 0:10:00and referred them to prosecutors.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It says it is working with the Department of Justice
0:10:03 > 0:10:05to ensure the wellbeing of inmates,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07adding that the majority of its officers
0:10:07 > 0:10:09act in a professional manner.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12We are constantly monitoring our system
0:10:12 > 0:10:16and when we may have any instances that require our special attention,
0:10:16 > 0:10:17we place the focus there.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20And this is a system that is built on people
0:10:20 > 0:10:22that want to do the right thing.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27We provide services, we provide programmes above and beyond
0:10:27 > 0:10:32what the Department of Justice agreed order requires us to do.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34So I would ask, if that was an institution
0:10:34 > 0:10:37that was bent on, you know, torturing inmates,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39then why would we provide such services?
0:10:41 > 0:10:45But the class action that alleges 45 assaults last year
0:10:45 > 0:10:49claims there is a culture of brutality in Cook County Jail.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51I put that to Sheriff Dart.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- There have been a lot of accusations.- Yeah, there have been.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57What I'm asking you is, do you think this is untrue?
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Absolutely, this stuff is untrue!
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And the parts of it we've been piecing together, mind you,
0:11:02 > 0:11:03we feel very comfortable
0:11:03 > 0:11:06that the allegations are not going to be sustained.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12The work of running a jail is very complicated and very difficult, OK?
0:11:12 > 0:11:14And do we have instances
0:11:14 > 0:11:17where employees don't always follow all the rules?
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Yes. And when we find out that information, we pursue them
0:11:20 > 0:11:22and depending on what the conduct is,
0:11:22 > 0:11:24we give the discipline appropriate
0:11:24 > 0:11:27or we attempt to fire people, whatever it may be.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Are there issues throughout the place? Yeah.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Because I challenge you to try to run a place of this size.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34You couldn't do it.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Allegations of violence against inmates
0:11:37 > 0:11:40aren't confined to Cook County Jail.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Across the country, one of the most contentious issues
0:11:43 > 0:11:45is the use of force in cell extractions
0:11:45 > 0:11:48when prisoners refuse to leave their cells.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56A cell extraction is underway
0:11:56 > 0:11:58in the California State Prison in Corcoran.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02There is a 31-year-old man behind this door.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06He was hearing voices and refused to take his medicine.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13To get him out, they pumped pepper spray into his cell repeatedly.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15YELLING
0:12:15 > 0:12:16Help!
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Oh, no!
0:12:23 > 0:12:24YELLING
0:12:27 > 0:12:32A federal judge has just ruled this was cruel and unconstitutional.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35The prison told us it was proper procedure at the time,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37adding that it has since tightened its rules
0:12:37 > 0:12:39on the use of pepper spray.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45Why has it come to this?
0:12:45 > 0:12:47What are more than a million Americans
0:12:47 > 0:12:49with mental health problems
0:12:49 > 0:12:51doing in jails and prisons in the first place?
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The country is littered with closed asylums,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58like this one in Peoria, built in 1902.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Half a million souls were once abandoned, many abused
0:13:04 > 0:13:08in various facilities around the country.
0:13:08 > 0:13:09Take your clothes off.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Scenes like this came to symbolise a failing system
0:13:12 > 0:13:15and prompted widespread closures.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18Come here!
0:13:21 > 0:13:24A better system was planned, based on community care.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35We travelled hundreds of miles down to Texas,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39where the historic failure of those grand plans is glaring.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41This oil-rich state has almost
0:13:41 > 0:13:45the lowest mental care budget per head in the country.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49DISPATCHER: "There's an unauthorised person at an apartment..."
0:13:52 > 0:13:54We went on patrol with the Houston Police,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57who are picking up the pieces of a broken system.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59RADIO BEEPS
0:14:02 > 0:14:04An emergency call comes in.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07We are going to call for additional backup on this call.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11A man with severe mental problems has been behaving erratically.
0:14:11 > 0:14:12He is in a property with guns.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20We're going to set you down on the back seat of my car.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23This man was released from a psychiatric hospital this morning.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27With an acute shortage of hospital beds here, short stays are the norm.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Long-term care programmes are scarce, too.
0:14:30 > 0:14:31That's pretty loose.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34OK. But I'm scared. Please, please!
0:14:34 > 0:14:35I've got my eye on you, bro.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39You're not in trouble, OK? We're just trying to work it out.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42He'd been hallucinating, seeing people in the trees.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Without beds or adequate community care in today's America,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15an entire section of the population has been neglected.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21There's about 4% to 5% of Americans
0:15:21 > 0:15:25who experience serious mental illness in any given year.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30We know that approximately one half of those individuals
0:15:30 > 0:15:32do not receive needed services.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35So, half of the people in this country with mental problems
0:15:35 > 0:15:38can't get the care they need? That's appalling, isn't it?
0:15:38 > 0:15:42That's approximately. And, you know, we need to do a much better job
0:15:42 > 0:15:48and have the will and the desire, frankly,
0:15:48 > 0:15:53to increase the community capacity to provide services.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58This man needs long-term care, not handcuffs.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00One of America's leading psychiatrists believes
0:16:00 > 0:16:03the plan to prioritise community care
0:16:03 > 0:16:05over modern hospitals was flawed from the start.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10It is appalling. They have subscribed to the political correctness
0:16:10 > 0:16:13that the old mental hospitals were terrible places
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and they can't be any worse off in the community.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Well, it turns out they can be
0:16:18 > 0:16:19if they end up in jails and prisons.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26We were allowed inside Houston's main jail, Harris County,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30and into one of its mental health units, considered a model facility.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38These inmates, deemed relatively stable, live observed behind glass.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Set apart from the rest of the facility is the suicide unit.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49This man, an acute case, has been stripped naked and put in a smock.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53He will be locked in a tiny cell alone.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Around 24,000 Americans with mental health problems
0:16:57 > 0:17:01are being held in solitary confinement.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02Not so different from the old days.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06These are leg irons
0:17:06 > 0:17:07and this is the belly chain.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09And it goes around the waist.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13It has two cuffs and it keeps his hands in this position here.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16So hopefully, if he's in a single cell, isolation cell,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18he can't do anything to himself.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23In here, the temperature was frigid.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27Seclusion, the jail said, can keep inmates safe and be therapeutic.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Again, we weren't able to speak with the inmates to ask how they felt.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The UN says more than 15 days of solitary
0:17:36 > 0:17:39may amount to torture, even if you're of sound mind.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45For people with severe mental illness, it appears it's much worse.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47You have hallucinations, delusions.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50You have disordered thoughts going on.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54For that reason, a lot of the examples of self-mutilation
0:17:54 > 0:17:57come from people who are in isolation with severe mental illness.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03This inmate, we were told, had been in a single cell for 109 days.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05We're not allowed to name her.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11Down the hall, another inmate had been segregated for 387 days.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15The average time in solitary in Texas is three years.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20Some Americans have been held in segregation for decades.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Is there a limit as to how long an individual inmate
0:18:26 > 0:18:28can spend in one of those cells?
0:18:28 > 0:18:30Everything is on a case-by-case basis.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34But by and far, the greatest number of those individuals
0:18:34 > 0:18:38are in multi-cell units.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41So the population you're talking about
0:18:41 > 0:18:44is truly a fraction of the overall number.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47We saw some individuals today
0:18:47 > 0:18:51who had been in these single-cell units for months.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55What benefit is it to these inmates to keep them for so long?
0:18:55 > 0:18:58I am the keeper of bodies
0:18:58 > 0:19:00that the criminal justice system brings to me.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Ultimately, it's a question better posed to the district attorney.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08The district attorney wouldn't comment,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10but the Texas Commission on Jail Standards told us
0:19:10 > 0:19:13inmates can be held in segregation indefinitely.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19This is Paul Schlosser.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23We were given access to him in a prison in Maine.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Paul, a former army medic convicted of armed robbery, is bipolar.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35When this video was taken, he had spent two months in segregation
0:19:35 > 0:19:37in the Maine Correctional Centre in Windham.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42The medicine he'd had wasn't working. He begged for more.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44..I end up getting about four a day
0:19:44 > 0:19:46instead of the six I should be getting.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Well, there's a solution to that.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Oh, God, tell me, please!
0:19:50 > 0:19:53OK. The solution is, right,
0:19:53 > 0:19:55stay out of prison.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Paul began to mutilate himself.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01You need to leave the bandages alone on your arm.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06Well, if you don't give me my medication on time...!
0:20:06 > 0:20:09I would cut up because of the depression
0:20:09 > 0:20:13and not seeing really any end in sight.
0:20:13 > 0:20:14A couple of times, it was with razors.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17If, you know, they allowed us to shave, I'd break a razor.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21It was to cause, you know, serious injury.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24I'm going to take one out and cut myself with it!
0:20:24 > 0:20:26The guards taunted him.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Cutters don't die, that's my personal experience.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31You just wait until they drop and then sweep them up.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33LAUGHTER
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Instantly, when I cut up, it's this total, um...like, almost at peace.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40You don't feel that emotional pain
0:20:40 > 0:20:43and then it just gets to a point where
0:20:43 > 0:20:45you feel that's really your only out.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Paul kept pulling the bandages off his wounds and demanding medication.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58So staff moved him, saying later it was to was to get him treatment.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03They put him in a restraint chair. The Devil's Chair, as some call it.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06- Argh! Watch my- BLEEP- arm!
0:21:06 > 0:21:08And wheeled him into another room.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Paul has hepatitis. He spits at a guard.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13Drop!
0:21:14 > 0:21:18That liquid they sprayed in his face is a highly-potent pepper spray.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21The manufacturers say it should only be used
0:21:21 > 0:21:23at a minimum distance of six feet.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25I can't breathe!
0:21:25 > 0:21:28'I started panicking. You're immobilised,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30'so you have no way to cover your face.'
0:21:30 > 0:21:32And it's just very claustrophobic,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34not being able to breathe and being strapped in.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37- Let me know when you're all done playing games.- I'm done! I'm done!
0:21:37 > 0:21:41It burns your eyes, it burns your ears.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43It burns any sensitive areas on your body.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47It definitely seemed like I was tortured.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49Keep talking, keep breathing. Keep talking.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Let go of my head, then!
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Maine's Department of Corrections declined to comment on the incident,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57but told us that the captain in charge
0:21:57 > 0:22:02still works as a corrections officer and has direct contact with inmates.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06Paul Schlosser survived his ordeal.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12But we had started cataloguing cases of other mentally-troubled inmates
0:22:12 > 0:22:15across the country who'd been subjected to chemical sprays,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19restraint chairs or beatings and who had died.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Your eye colour is really hard to get.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25- Let go of him. - LAUGHTER
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Cases like that of Joshua Messier from Boston.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31He showed no signs of mental problems as a boy.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35In his late teens, though, he became delusional.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38During a schizophrenic episode
0:22:38 > 0:22:40in a psychiatric hospital, he struck a nurse.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44He was sent here, to Bridgwater, Massachusetts,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46a prison for the criminally insane.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52One night, Joshua's mother came for visiting hours.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53She said Joshua was terrified.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57He was a shy country kid.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59And him saying to me, "Mum,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02"there's people in here that have killed their grandparents."
0:23:02 > 0:23:05And he was scared.
0:23:06 > 0:23:07He was scared.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Joshua said goodbye to his mother
0:23:11 > 0:23:14and left the visiting area unescorted.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17The guards ran to restrain him.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23Some of what happened next was captured on security cameras.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Joshua screamed he was having a schizophrenic episode.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30The prison says he lashed out.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33But in the end, there were at least four guards restraining him.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39He was beaten so badly that on autopsy,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41he had something known as subdural haematomas,
0:23:41 > 0:23:43which are bleeds on his brain.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48In another room, they started strapping Joshua down to a bed.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50First his legs.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53They don't stop there.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57They take his torso and press it into the tops of his legs,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01compressing his diaphragm. You can't breathe like that.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05And then one guard, I think he weighed about 235lbs,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08he was about 6'2", lays on his back.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11And they hold him that way for minutes.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Until there's not a sound.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17And they lay his lifeless body back.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Joshua died after his chest was compressed and his heart stopped.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30The state's chief medical examiner first declared it a homicide.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32But then, things changed.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34The corrections commissioner at the time
0:24:34 > 0:24:38said everything was appropriately and professionally done.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41The authorities later said one of the officers
0:24:41 > 0:24:44who had put his weight on Joshua had lost his balance.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49You got the evidence of a death certificate saying it's homicide.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52You have the evidence that it's on video.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58A kid walks into a room, call it a cell, call it a room, alive.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03There's six people there that get on his back and he's dead.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05How are those people not in jail?
0:25:07 > 0:25:09The authorities have acknowledged
0:25:09 > 0:25:11that the officers shouldn't have compressed Joshua's back
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and say they've improved staff training.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18But five years on, the officers have yet to be prosecuted
0:25:18 > 0:25:22and were recently put on leave, pending further investigations.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25I swear this world's gone mad.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Nobody seems to care about anybody.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Especially a person with mental illness.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Nothing's been done.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Nobody's been prosecuted.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37And I heard that some of them,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41their punishment was they had some time off. Paid time off.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44They got a vacation for killing my son.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Across America, in virtually
0:25:48 > 0:25:51all the cases of death and abuse we've recounted here,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55mistreatment was initially either denied, sanctioned or covered up.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58So, how far does this go?
0:25:58 > 0:26:00The US government couldn't tell us
0:26:00 > 0:26:03how many inmates with mental problems have died,
0:26:03 > 0:26:05so we did some research of our own.
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Over the course of making this programme,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10we've collected the names of almost 100 such individuals
0:26:10 > 0:26:14who've died of abuse or neglect since 2003.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17The actual number is likely to be much higher.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22We put our findings to the Justice Department in Washington,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26but they declined to be interviewed for this programme.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Instead, they pointed us to a number of facilities around the country
0:26:29 > 0:26:32which they're investigating for the abuse and neglect of inmates.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37But there are wider questions to answer
0:26:37 > 0:26:39about the failures of the mental health care system.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The man in charge of federal mental health programmes
0:26:42 > 0:26:44says there's a limit to what he can do.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49Everyone in America blames everybody else for this problem.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52No-one wants to take responsibility for it.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54We will take responsibility
0:26:54 > 0:26:56and we're doing all that we can
0:26:56 > 0:26:58in order to do it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01But within the resources that we have,
0:27:01 > 0:27:07again, 80% of our funding going to people with serious mental illness,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11we need to do a lot more and this country needs to do a lot more.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18In Boston, Joshua's mother, Lisa Brown is seeking justice for her son
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and for the hundreds of thousands of Americans
0:27:21 > 0:27:24with severe mental health conditions behind bars.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28What makes anybody think that we're going to fix this crisis
0:27:28 > 0:27:30by throwing them in jail?
0:27:32 > 0:27:36It's not going to fix the crisis, it's just going to make it worse.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Most Americans think of widespread brutality
0:27:41 > 0:27:42against the mentally troubled
0:27:42 > 0:27:45as just a shame of the past, but it's not.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50I think in terms of the history of 20th century America,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53our failure to treat people with severe mental illnesses
0:27:53 > 0:27:54and the consequences is one of
0:27:54 > 0:27:56the great social disasters of the century.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59I think it will be regarded in retrospect
0:27:59 > 0:28:01as something we'll be very ashamed of.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06One evil has given way to another.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12America's jails and prisons have become its new asylums.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14SHOUTING
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Next Monday - ISIS, terror in Iraq.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25Panorama witnesses the fighting
0:28:25 > 0:28:27and investigates the terrorist organisation
0:28:27 > 0:28:29that has declared an Islamic state
0:28:29 > 0:28:32and is recruiting British jihadists to join it.