Judge To Decide In Prison Mental Health Case

A federal judge is to decide the outcome of a lawsuit that seeks an order instructing the state to improve its care for mentally ill inmates.

U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele heard four days of testimony last week. He is to set a schedule for lawyers to submit further written arguments before ruling in the case.

Darin Winters is suing the state of Arkansas and Benton County. He says his father Donald Winters should have received better mental health treatment while held on a trespassing charge in the Benton County jail.

The father wasn't transferred to a state mental health facility immediately because there wasn't room. Donald Winters died of an infection related to an ulcer after he refused food and water for three days, believing he was to be executed.