Prison Knew About Tyreick Rodriguez’s Mental Health, Says CEO  

According to Virgilio Murillo, C.E.O. of the Kolbe Foundation, prison officials were aware of Tyreick Rodriguez’s mental health condition before he arrived. That information, he says, came through the Belize Health Information System. When it came to monitoring Rodriguez in his cell, Murillo explained that the prison tried to strike a balance—keeping him safe without violating his dignity. In his words, they aimed to ensure that safety checks didn’t feel invasive or dehumanizing.

 

Virgillo Murillo, C.E.O., Kolbe Foundation

“It is only through the BHIS, the Belize Health Information System that we managed to realize that he was a mental patient on medication.”

 

Paul Lopez

“What sort of safety checks is done in these psychiatric holding cells to ensure that items are not around that could lead to self-harm?”

 

Virgillo Murillo

“Well there were no items that led to self-harm. He was in bare clothing, a boxers and a T-shirt as I was told. If we get paranoid about how to treat mentally challenged prisoners and think that all of them want to commit suicide, one of the protocols is to strip them down to their birthday clothes. But that would be infringing on their human dignity. We don’t want to subject people to that type of treatment because we are paranoid and blown away by their mental state. So, we put them in their holding cells and observe them and if they display any behavior that would be indicative that they might be suicidal then we have a protocol for that. In this case we hadn’t have time to figure him out. As a prison we don’t have any control over who is sent to us. Once the magistrate or judge sends a person with a comital warrant to us, whether remanded or convicted, we need to honor that. Not doing so will boil down to contempt of court and we can find ourselves on the other side of the law.”