CRUEL AND UNUSUAL

Lawsuit: Mentally Ill U.S. Prisoner Kept in Solitary Lost His Ability to Speak

Court documents allege Tyquine Lee now speaks in numbers and can no longer recognize his mom or remember his own name.

A U.S. prisoner with a long history of mental illness was allegedly held in solitary confinement for so long that he lost his ability to speak. A new lawsuit reported by The Guardian alleges that Tyquine Lee, 26, spent more than 600 days in solitary confinement at the Red Onion state prison in Virginia. During that time, he spent at least 22 hours a day in a concrete cell. The lawsuit states that Lee lost a significant amount of weight and can no longer recognize his mother or remember his own name. A psychiatric review conducted in January 2018, after Lee’s time in solitary, diagnosed him with schizophrenia and an unspecified personality disorder that were allegedly left untreated and worsened in prison. The review also said Lee now spoke in numbers and invented words. The Virginia Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.