The Alaska Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether prisoners can be forcibly medicated with psychiatric drugs without a court hearing and the right to a lawyer. The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska brought the case against the Department of Corrections on behalf of prisoner Mark Andrews. He said he has been unjustly drugged, by being held down and injected with powerful psychotropic medication for most of the last seven years, without due process or access to legal counsel.
Department policy currently allows prisoners to be drugged against their will only if they are gravely disabled or are in imminent risk of harming themselves or others.
Doron Levine, lawyer for the ACLU of Alaska, argued at the hearing that the policy infringes on rights protected by the state constitution.
“Few things are more personal than someone's body, and arguably, nothing is more personal than a person's mind,” Levine said. “The mind is where we think, believe, feel, emotions, hold memories. It's the locus of a person's identity, and it's a last refuge of freedom for people who are incarcerated.”
Under department policy, prisoners have the right to hearings every six months with department staff and they have the right to appeal the decision to a department committee.
ACLU of Alaska argued that Andrews didn’t have sufficient access to hearings or an appeal.
Justice Jennifer Henderson questioned Kimber Rogers, the attorney representing the state Department of Corrections, and said the facts seem to suggest that the prisoner was denied the rights promised in the department’s policy.
“Your Honor, I agree that there were definitely some problems in Mr. Andrews’ hearings,” Rogers replied.
Justice Henderson interrupted Rogers and said, “It seems there were more than some problems. There were long periods of time where there were no hearings, for example.”
Rogers said that she would dispute that.
Levine, with the ACLU, also argued that there should be a hearing in a courtroom, not just inside the department, because the Alaska Department of Corrections staff may be biased to protect the institution over a person.
But Rogers said a hearing inside prison is the best approach.
“The judgment that's being made here whether a prisoner is dangerous to himself or others due to mental illness, it's primarily a medical and a correctional decision, not a legal one,” she said. “And so this is a decision that DOC medical professionals are best positioned to make.”
Rogers also said the department’s process already includes safeguards like requiring the opinion of an outside psychiatrist about whether medication is required to protect the prisoner's safety and facility security. She said the department is concerned about the burden of delays if this process requires court hearings.
When the Supreme Court issues a ruling, the decision could apply to the approximately 22 Alaska prisoners who are being forcibly drugged.
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