Psychiatry's Legacy of Racism and Coercion Highlighted in Restraint Deaths

LOS ANGELES - Rezul -- With May being Mental Health Month, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) is spotlighting a disturbing new study published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, titled "I Can't Breathe" – A Study of Civil Litigated Cases on Prone Restraint Deaths. The review analyzed 229 fatal police restraint cases from 2010 to 2019. Of those where race was reported, 38% of the victims were African American. In 58% of cases, death occurred within five minutes of restraint; more than 20% of victims were recorded gasping, "I can't breathe"—a hallmark of lethal respiratory failure.[1]

The mental health watchdog warns that such deaths are rooted in eugenic ideologies that historically promoted coercion under the guise of control. The disproportionate representation of African Americans in restraint-related deaths reflects entrenched psychiatric and psychological racism—pseudoscientific theories that falsely declared Black inferiority and continue to influence profiling today.

This coercive culture is echoed in "warrior-style" or "killology" law enforcement training developed by a psychology professor 20 years ago that promotes a "kill or be killed" mindset. It conditions officers to respond with deadly force. As Mother Jones reported, such training "often runs the risk of the use of unnecessary, and sometimes, fatal force."[2]

Such force reflects a broader, systemic pattern: racial profiling and the use of physical and chemical restraints, disproportionately on African Americans. A 2017 New York Law School Journal report confirmed: "Behavior by African-Americans is more often interpreted as 'dangerous' than identical behavior by whites," and they are more likely to be labeled with psychiatric conduct disorders.[3]

These injustices trace back to the slave era.  Benjamin Rush, dubbed the "father of American psychiatry," claimed Blacks suffered from "Negritude"—a disease curable only by whitening their skin. His protégé, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, fabricated the diagnosis "Drapetomania" to explain why slaves tried to escape, advocating that "whipping the devil out of them" was therapeutic.[4] Myths that Blacks were "more durable to pain" persist today, known as Black hardiness," stereotypes that influence restraint and drugging.

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CCHR highlights the enduring racism embedded in psychiatric practice:

• African Americans are 13.5% of the U.S. population, yet account for 33.6% of schizophrenia and 21.4% of ADHD diagnoses.[5]
• Among children: 28% of Black youth are labeled with conduct disorder, and 27.4% with oppositional defiant disorder—despite the lack of biological tests for any of these.
• In emergency rooms, Black patients are 63% more likely to be chemically restrained than whites.[6]
• Between 2012–2019, Black psychiatric inpatients were 85% more likely to be restrained than whites.[7]
• African Americans suffer longer and more frequent restraints and accounted for 22% of restraint-related deaths across treatment facilities.[8]

Further compounding harm, psychiatrists prescribe African Americans higher doses of antipsychotics, which can cause tardive dyskinesia (TD), a neurological disorder marked by uncontrollable movements.[9] African Americans are twice as likely to develop TD compared to whites.[10] Antipsychotics may cause suicidality, diabetes, brain shrinkage, compulsive behaviors, and are even linked to breast cancer, according to a recent study.[11]

CCHR points to the tragic deaths of children under psychiatric restraint:

• Ja'Ceon Terry, 7 – restrained and died of asphyxiation.
• Cornelius Frederick, 16 – restrained for throwing a sandwich; died after gasping "I can't breathe."
• Jeremiah Flemming, 15 – restrained, lost consciousness and died.
• Omega Leach, 17 – forced face-down, suffered fatal injuries.
• Roshelle Clayborne, 16 – suffocated.
• Andrew McClain, 11 – died after being restrained for minor behavior.

Each case underscores a system not of healing, but of unchecked coercion.

The United Nations and World Health Organization have repeatedly condemned coercive psychiatric practices, equating them with torture.

• The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture found non-consensual psychiatric interventions "may well amount to torture."[12]
• The 2023 WHO and UN Human Rights Office Guidance on Mental Health calls for an end to involuntary hospitalization, forced drugging, electroshock, and restraint—stating unequivocally: "The use of any coercive measure in all mental health services is prohibited."[13]

Despite these clear international mandates, African Americans remain disproportionately subject to such practices in the U.S.

CCHR, established 56 years ago by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, calls for a permanent end to coercive psychiatric practices: banning forced treatment, physical and chemical restraint, and psychological "killology" law enforcement training. They also demand accountability for harm and deaths caused by such practices.

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Sources:

[1] Alon Steinberg, et al., "I can't breathe" – A study of civil litigated cases on prone restraint deaths," Journ. of Forensic and Legal Medicine, May 2025, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X25000630?dgcid=rss_sd_all

[2] www.cchrint.org/2020/09/15/task-force-wants-psychological-killology-police-training-investigated/; www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/05/bob-kroll-minneapolis-warrior-police-training/

[3] www.cchrint.org/2020/06/09/naacp-inglewood-south-bay-executive-and-cchr-calls-for-ban-on-restraints-in-psychiatric-hospitals/; Michael L. Perlin, et al., "Tolling For the Aching Ones Whose Wounds Cannot Be Nursed," Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, Vol. 20, Issue 3 (Summer 2017), pp. 431-45, digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1947&context=fac_articles_chapters

[4] www.cchrint.org/2020/06/09/naacp-inglewood-south-bay-executive-and-cchr-calls-for-ban-on-restraints-in-psychiatric-hospitals/; Samuel A. Cartwright, M.D., "Report on the Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race," New Orleans & Surgical Journal, 1851; Thomas Szasz, Insanity, The Idea and Its Consequences, (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1990), p. 306, 307; www.cchrint.org/2019/07/17/minority -mental-health-month-may-spell-mental-health-slavery/

[5] www.wcia.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/601728936/new-government-report-provides-evidence-racism-is-still-entrenched-in-states-mental-health-services/; www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2020-mental-health-client-level-data-annual-report

[6] "Racial disparities in the management of emergency department patients presenting with psychiatric disorders," Ann Epidemiology, May 2022

[7] cchrnational.org/2023/11/07/cchr-warns-new-study-indicates-black-patients-in-psychiatric-facilities-more-likely-to-be-restrained-and-for-longer/

[8] "National Review of Restraint Related Deaths of Children and Adults with Disabilities: The Lethal Consequences of Restraint," Equip for Equality, 2011, www.equipforequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/National-Review-of-Restraint-Related-Deaths-of-Adults-and-Children-with-Disabilities-The-Lethal-Consequences-of-Restraint.pdf, p. 30

[9] "Best Practices: Racial and Ethnic Effects on Antipsychotic Prescribing Practices in a Community Mental Health Center," Psychiatric Services, 1 Feb. 2003,
psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ps.54.2.177

[10] www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/examining-factors-influence-antipsychotic-prescribing-decisions; resources.healthgrades.com/right-care/mental-health-and-behavior/what-black-americans-should-know-about-taking-antipsychotic-medications

[11] "J&J and Eli Lilly Concealed Breast Cancer Risks in Blockbuster Antipsychotics for Decades, Wisner Baum Lawsuit Alleges," PR Newswire, 23 Apr. 2023

[12] "Mental health and human rights," Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 28 September 2018

[13] World Health Organization, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation," 9 Oct. 2023