Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Prison Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime

A 51-year-old mentally ill grandmother recently secured a $US1.6 million settlement from a New Mexico county that she says jailed her for more than two years, much of which she spent in an isolation cell without a bed.

Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Prison Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime Image

Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Prison Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime Image

That grandmother, Jan Green, has bipolar disorder and was charged with two minor incidents of domestic violence — both of which were ultimately dropped, her lawyer says.

While the broad strokes of Green’s case sound awful, the details she and her lawyer allege are by turns stomach-turning and heartbreaking.

Green was allegedly kept in a roughly 7-by-8-foot solitary confinement cell for at least eight months, sleeping on a mat on the floor and bleeding on herself because she had been denied sanitary napkins.

Green’s bipolar disorder, which can cause extreme shifts in mood and psychosis, allegedly got worse in solitary. She was never treated by a psychiatrist while she was in the Valencia County Detention Center (VCDC).

“I am not a fan of New Mexico,” Green, who has since moved to Minnesota, told me over the phone. “The horrific things that I went through there still haunt me.”
‘I Keep Coming Across Cases Like This’

One would like to think Green’s story is rare because the allegations are so unsettling. But Green’s case is by no means an isolated incident, according to her lawyer, Matthew Coyte.

“I keep coming across cases like this,” Coyte told me, “and it’s often involving people who are mentally ill, at least in New Mexico.”

Green was held in the VCDC as a pre-trial detainee, meaning she had been charged with domestic violence and was awaiting trial. However, she was found incompetent to stand trial, according to the December 2012 complaint she filed in federal court, hence her lengthy pre-trial detention.

People like Green are “unable to advocate themselves, and the jail takes over, and they disappear for years at a time,” Coyte told me. “Is it uncommon? Sadly it’s all too common.”

More: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/jan-greens-solitary-confinement-nightmare-2014-2?google_editors_picks=true
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Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis, OZschwitz Contraband
“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner
"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann

Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Prison Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime

Shocking Story Of A Bipolar Woman Stuck For Years In Prison Without Ever Being Convicted Of A Crime

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Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order