McCrory chides Perdue over prison report

Expected 2012 GOP gubernatorial contender Pat McCrory says neglecting mentally ill prisoners is 'inexcusable.'

Posted 4:48 a.m. Nov 16, 2011 — Updated 4:48 a.m. Nov 16, 2011

Laura Leslie

2008 GOP gubernatorial Pat McCrory had some harsh words today for Governor Bev Perdue over the reported mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners at Central Prison in Raleigh.

McCrory called recent reports of mentally ill inmates' horrendous living conditions "disturbing." An internal review found some were living in filth, while others were given the wrong types or doses of medications. Some prisoners were locked up in isolation cells for weeks on end without breaks ordered by their doctors. More on that here.

Perdue said yesterday the problems at Central are being resolved. But McCrory said conditions should never have gotten to the point they did, and they should've been addressed when they were reported in May of this year.

"It’s a very sad commentary on our mental health system, which the governor said she was an expert on when she got elected. But very little progress has been made, not just in our prisons but in our emergency rooms in both rural and urban areas across the state," he said today.

The former Charlotte mayor, in town for a fundraiser, is expected to seek a rematch with Gov. Perdue in 2012.

When he was asked about the neglect by an audience member at the North Raleigh Hilton, he said he didn't want to "pile on," because there are no easy answers to the mental health problems facing the state.

But if he were governor, he said, he would take immediate action to correct them.

"We’d have no choice but to take those steps, both from a human standpoint and a legal standpoint," he said. "It’s inexcusable from a humane standpoint. Something has to be done to protect people who can’t help themselves."

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