http://www.peteearley.com/2019/04/09/new-hampshire-puts-mentally-ill-in-prison-because-it-lacks-treatment-beds-disability-group-applauds-decision-to-not-built-new-hospital/?fbclid=IwAR2JpczCIAcV0Fy53y9jdUXfvIiKRYvnj5c7pNClOX3MNjPNEHy2dTZQDlc

Therapy cages at state prison

(4-9-19) New Hampshire’s abhorrent practice of housing its seriously mentally ill citizens, who have not been charged with crimes, inside a state prison rather than treating them in a hospital is again making headlines.

Governor Chris Sununu sought to stop this horrific practice by requesting $26 million in funding to build a 60-bed state hospital that would be opened by June 2021 with its own secure unit.

But Democrats on the state’s finance committee rejected Sununu’s plan, opting instead to spend $5 million to renovate rooms in an existing state hospital for a limited number of higher-need patients.

What makes this dispute newsworthy is it has pitted two groups, both created to help patients, against each other.

Disability Rights Center-NH opposed building a new state hospital. In a statement, it agreed that civilly committed patients should not be housed in a state prison, but…