In fact, US prisons and jails have widely taken on the role of de facto mental health facilities for the most exploited and impoverished sections of workers and youth who are unable to afford psychiatric treatment and residential mental health programs and resources. Based on the total inmate population, this means approximately 383,000 individuals with severe psychiatric disease were behind bars in the United States in 2014, or nearly 10 times the number of patients remaining in the nation’s state mental hospitals. Approximately 20 percent of inmates in jails and 15 percent of inmates in state prisons are now estimated to have a serious mental illness. The Los Angeles County Jail, Chicago’s Cook County Jail and New York’s Riker’s Island Jail each hold more mentally ill inmates than any psychiatric hospital in the United States. While the exact nature of Ingram’s psychological state remain unclear, the admission that the victim was placed in a mental health unit before being killed is also a testament to the problems of mental illness that plagues the prison system, which experts call “the new asylums.” In a 2016 study performed by the Treatment Advocacy Center on mental illness prevalence in correctional institutions, researchers found that a jail or prison holds more mentally ill individuals than the largest remaining state psychiatric hospital in 44 states. The three are expected to make their first appearance in court on Friday morning.ĭade Correctional Institution possesses one of the largest psych wards of any of the state’s prisons and is also one of a handful of institutions that cater to inmates with psychological issues. Despite complaints from Walton’s attorney, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer determined there was probable cause to imprison all three men without bond. Three of the correctional officers thus far, Connor, Rolon and Walton, are facing charges of second-degree murder, cruel treatment of a detainee and aggravated abuse of an elderly person. Ingram had also acquired bruises all across his face and torso. According to the arrest warrant, the medical examiner determined the cause of death to be from blunt-force trauma to Ingram’s upper body during an assault, resulting in broken ribs, a punctured right lung, and the internal bleeding which followed that eventually killed him. The van Ingram was placed in made a stop in Ocala, Florida, where the prisoner was found lying on a bench. When the group comes back into view of the camera, Ingram appears to no longer be able to walk unassisted. The group is out of sight of the camera for a period, and it is during that time authorities believed Ingram was beaten. In a surveillance video shown at the news conference Friday, Ingram can be seen walking from his cell to the transportation area with corrections officers. “The inmate was beaten so badly he had to be carried to the transport van,” the department said, adding he was placed in a secure compartment alone. Before he was removed from his cell, he “reportedly threw urine on one of the officers,” FDLE said. Although Ingram was in handcuffs and compliant with officer commands, the officers began to beat him. The four officers arrested on Thursday and Friday-Ronald Connor, 24, Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Jeremy Godbolt, 28-reportedly put Ingram in handcuffs and took him from his cell, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Ingram’s cell was in the prison’s mental health unit. The victim has been identified as 60-year-old Ronald Ingram, an inmate who was in the process of being transferred out of Dade Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County and moved to a different prison in North Florida. Cameras inside the Dade Correctional Facility capture officers escorting the inmate, Ronald Gene Ingram, from his cell to the transport van, prosecutors said.
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