limiting maximum-security cells for the mentally ill

Some truly good news for criminals with mental illnesses.

Mental health advocates are hailing last week's court settlement that will keep inmates with serious mental illness out of the maximum-security wings of Indiana prisons. But they and others say the state still needs to do more to meet the needs of mentally ill prisoners.

"The Department of Correction is being burdened with people that don't belong in the Department of Correction," said Edward Cohn, who oversaw the department under Gov. Evan Bayh and Gov. Frank O'Bannon, retiring in 2001. "They belong in a mental health setting. . . . The prisons were never established for that."

The settlement means no more windowless, 7-by-12-foot cells for some inmates who are among the state's most unruly, but whose illnesses make them a danger to themselves. The agreement also includes regular psychiatric evaluations of prisoners who remain behind.

The agreement between the department and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana ends a suit brought in 2005 by three inmates. They all had mental illnesses and were confined in the Secured Housing Unit of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. (IndyStar)