Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle is calling for mandatory mental health assessments for every person entering His Majesty's Prison and the urgent establishment of a proper psychiatric facility, after callers to Monday night's Straight Talk programme raised harrowing accounts of mentally ill inmates who have died or been seriously injured behind bars.
"Mental health is real, and it's something that all of us as Antiguans and Barbudans should pay attention to," the United Progressive Party leader said on Progressive 107.3 FM, extending condolences to families mourning loved ones "whose illness caused them to act in a particular way."
Callers Recount Prison Tragedies
The discussion was prompted by a caller who questioned why persons with mental illness accused of petty offences are sent to prison rather than for psychiatric evaluation. She pointed to news reports that day that an inmate — described as a repeat offender with a known mental condition who had been beaten on arrest — had set himself ablaze in prison and died and referenced an earlier incident in which an inmate who barricaded himself in his cell died after being tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets.
"What sort of effect would that have on me as a parent, knowing that my child is mentally ill and was sent to the prison because of some petty crime, and he is now dead?" she asked.
In a later, emotional call, a grandmother alleged that her 25-year-old grandson was severely beaten in his cell in early July and spent two weeks on life support in intensive care and claimed there had been attempts to portray the attack as a suicide attempt and to have him committed. Another caller, who identified himself as a former police officer, described the death of the inmate who was gassed in his cell as avoidable, insisting trained officers could have safely restrained him.
Screening, Early Intervention, and a Real Facility
MP Pringle said the accounts strengthen the case for professional assessment rather than assumption. "You cannot just look at a person and say this person is all well and good," he said. "I believe all persons who enter the prison should be evaluated. Once you are convicted, there should be some form of mental health assessment done."
He called for early intervention across the system, saying teachers, police officers, prison officers and social workers should be trained — "not to administer or treat mental health, but to be able to identify and detect" persons with mental health challenges and call in professionals before situations spiral. "Just as any sickness, it can be controlled. But there must be early intervention."
The Opposition Leader was blunt about the state's existing arrangements, saying the country needs a proper psychiatric hospital where treatment and rehabilitation can actually be administered. "It cannot be Clarevue, because at Clarevue they walk in and walk out. That is a situation that also needs to be remedied," he said, recalling that government had at one point announced the purchase of a former church building to serve as a new psychiatric hospital, though he could not say whether the plan had been shelved.
MP Pringle urged the government to assess available resources and convene stakeholders to develop a national mental health plan, noting that while a mental health bill has reportedly been circulated, he had not yet seen its contents. He also appealed for the public to shed the stigma that keeps sufferers from seeking help. "The public can be quite vicious," he said. "We have to be a bit more sensitive and a little more compassionate, because we don't know the challenges people are going through."
"You're not hearing any proposals or any policy from the government to address this situation," MP Pringle charged, adding: "We have to take responsibility for our actions as leaders, and we must do all we possibly can to ensure the safety of not some individuals, but all the individuals in Antigua and Barbuda."
