nvironment of a prison, city intake shelters can be chaotic and frightening places. State prisoners usually serve indeterminate sentences, i.e., two to six years, or seven to 14 years.80 Inmates released prior to serving their maximum sentence are supervised by parole until that maximum date arrives. The purpose of parole is to monitor the ex-prisoner's conduct in the community and ensure the person remains law-abiding. Parole officers have the power to impose any number of conditions on an ex-prisoner, such as requiring that the parolee receive psychiatric treatment or not use drugs or alcohol. For ex-prisoners with mental illness, a parole officer could be a valuable resource for help in securing benefits, housing and treatment. OMH has made efforts to train parole officers about mental health issues, but parole caseloads are high and few officers have the time or expertise to help parolees reinstate their benefits and obtain mental health services. Because their parole conditions generally require them to get mental health treatment and to remain in the shelter, people with mental illness recently released from prison are in an even worse situation than those released from jail. When they decompensate because they have not received mental health services, or when they leave the shelter because their mental state is too fragile for such a difficult environment, they have violated parole and are often sent back to prison shortly thereafter. People with mental illness are particularly likely to find themselves in punitive or administrative segregation due to behavior that is symptomatic of their illness.83 For example, studies in Ohio in the early 1990s found that hundreds of inmates had been placed in disciplinary cells for no reason other than mental illness.84 "Acting out" psychotic behavior and even suicide attempts by inmates with mental illness are sometimes treated as discipline problems; several days after his death, one inmate ...
