A federal investigation into the state’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners has ended amid important change, but questions linger about the use of solitary confinement and how effectively the state manages mentally ill people in its care.

The U.S. Justice Department three years ago opened an investigation into the excessive use of solitary confinement of prisoners at now-closed State Correctional Institution Cresson in Cambria County, then broadened that inquiry to all Pennsylvania state prisons. Investigators found that some mentally ill inmates spent as many as 23 hours a day alone, sometimes for years at a stretch.

The federal government, which this month announced the end of its investigation, was not the state’s only critic; the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania sued in 2013, alleging improper use of solitary confinement. The state has since created new housing options for prisoners with mental illness, increased mental health training for staff and committed to other improvements.

However, about 2,000 state prisoners remain in solitary. While the state has indicated that none of them has a serious mental illness, one must ask how often isolation — especially prolonged isolation — is appropriate for anyone. Increasingly, the practice is falling into disfavor. Last year, following a lawsuit led by University of Pittsburgh law professor Jules Lobel, California agreed to reduce the practice. In January, President Barack Obama banned its use for juveniles in federal prisons and ordered reduced use for other federal prisoners.

The state must work to further pare its use of solitary. It also must continue working to improve its treatment of the mentally ill requiring care, whether they are in prisons or other settings. It currently faces a trio of federal lawsuits, two that the Disability Rights Network filed against the Department of Human Services over the availability of community services for people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities and autism and one that the American Civil Liberties Union filed against the department  over the treatment of those deemed too mentally ill to face trial on criminal charges (a partial settlement has been reached in this case).

Reducing the use of solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners is only the start of a shift that’s needed in the approach to prisoners and others with psychiatric conditions.

First Published: April 25, 2016, 4:00 a.m.