Andrew Cohen writes for The Atlantic on federal lawyers’ employment of circular reasoning in the motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of a Supermax inmate who committed suicide after not receiving treatment for his mental health issues:
The prison staff’s repeated failure or refusal to treat Vega for his obvious mental illness now is being used as evidence by the government that Vega didn’t need to be treated for his obvious mental illness.
While the U.S. penal system is still heavily based on the concept of retributive justice, we must mete out that justice humanely, and that includes looking after the health of our inmates.