Alleged abuse at state mental hospital demands an investigation | Editorial

For years, Norristown State Hospital’s forensic unit has been held up as a model for its treatment of inmates with mental illness. But something seems to have seriously gone awry.

Several people who were incarcerated there recounted harrowing incidents of abuse, including burns and beatings. Seven current and former employees alleged guards assaulted inmates out of view from security cameras and then claimed the injuries were due to patients falling out of bed.

The employees detailed a lax culture where staff sleep on the job, watch pornography, and bring alcohol to work. They said that guards would incite conflicts and then call for patients to be sedated. Employees who reported the incidents said they were threatened and told to keep quiet.

These accusations of abuse and cover-ups were part of an alarming report by Inquirer reporter Samantha Melamed. They demand a full investigation.

» READ MORE: They accused staff at a state mental hospital of abuse. But who would believe them?

The state Department of Human Services, which oversees the state psychiatric hospitals, refused to comment on specific incidents of abuse. The agency did not respond to The Inquirer’s questions about whether any staff had been disciplined. DHS also declined to allow the reporter to tour the facility or interview hospital administrators.

The best a DHS spokesman could muster was that all allegations have been documented and investigated. That is hardly reassuring.

No doubt treating inmates who have mental illness can be challenging and complicated. The patients can be unstable and unruly. But that is not a license for abuse by those who are charged with their care.

Indeed, DHS’s own data indicate Norristown State Hospital is more violent than the five other state-run psychiatric units. The number of injuries from patient-on-patient assaults in the forensic unit, which treats people deemed incompetent to stand trial, was 75% higher than the average for all the other state-run psychiatric hospitals, according to the most recent data available.

The 20 documented abuse allegations at Norristown amounted to half of all cases across the state system, yet the unit only accounted for 14% of all days of care.

The number of times Norristown administered emergency medication to sedate patients was more than double the use of powerful narcotics given at another state-run forensic unit.

“The data raise red flags that need to be examined.”

The data raise red flags that need to be examined. The disturbing allegations of abuse from current and former employees as well as patients provide a deeper cause for concern.

Alex Zachariah, a staffer at Norristown State Hospital, said a patient told him that a guard picked him up and slammed him to the floor after he accidentally spilled a nutrition drink. After Zachariah reported the incident, he received a threatening call in his office: “Snitches get stitches.”

Zachariah said he encountered another patient whose torso was covered in bruises. The Inquirer interviewed the patient, who is now serving a sentence in state prison. He said two guards at Norristown State Hospital beat him and that he subsequently developed PTSD.

Zachariah asked about the incident and was told an investigation was underway. He said he was later called into a meeting with two supervisors and told to “stay in his lane.”

Other former employees told The Inquirer of incidents where guards put liquid soap in a patient’s mouth and scalded another with hot water. After one patient defecated on the floor, a guard allegedly pushed the patient’s face in the excrement.

Several former employees said there is a code of silence at Norristown State Hospital. One said a nurse threatened to slash a staffer’s tires if they spoke up.

Another patient told The Inquirer that after he was physically and sexually abused by a guard, his attacker told him: “They’re not going to believe you … you’re crazy.”

“Sadly, we have seen this story before.”

Sadly, we have seen this story before. People in positions of power take advantage of those who are vulnerable, relying on misplaced loyalty or intimidation to silence those who would speak up.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro made his reputation in part by taking on powerful institutions, including the Catholic Church. Shapiro is busy transitioning to the governor’s mansion, but fortunately, a special agent from the Attorney General’s Office has reportedly contacted some Norristown witnesses.

Zachariah, one of the brave employees who spoke up, used a Latin phrase in the grievance he filed that translates into the right question: Who will guard the guards?

Only a full and thorough investigation can provide the answer.