A US man has been awarded $22 million for inhumane treatment after being jailed in solitary confinement for 22 months for drink driving in the southern state of New Mexico. Stephen Slevin, 57, said he suffered clinical depression after being jailed on charges of driving while intoxicated, transferring a stolen vehicle and other offenses in Dona Ana County in August, 2005.
"People were walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate day after day after day, and did nothing, nothing at all to get me any help," said Slevin, after Tuesday's verdict at the US District Court in Santa Fe. He told jail authorities he needed treatment for his mental condition, but his pleas were ignored and he became delirious, said his attorney, civil rights lawyer Matthew Coyte. By May 2007, when Slevin was transferred to a mental hospital, he had lost a third of his body weight, had a beard down to his chest, toenails curling around his toes, fungus on his skin, bed sores and "had been driven mad."
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