More than 80 people with mental health problems have died as a result of abuse or neglect in US jails since 2003, a BBC Panorama investigation has found.
The figures follow analysis of government databases, news archives and legal investigations.
More than one million people with mental health problems are in US jails.
The US Department of Justice is investigating allegations of abuse and neglect of inmates at a number of facilities.
In facilities in six US states, BBC Panorama catalogued cases where prisoners had been beaten, sprayed with chemicals or tied down for long periods, and others where inmates had been held indefinitely in solitary confinement.
In most of the cases of death and abuse it found, the mistreatment had been initially denied, sanctioned or covered up.
'No prosecution'
Joshua Messier, 23, of Boston, who had schizophrenia, died in 2009 after four guards tried to strap him down to a restraint bed, doubling him over and compressing his chest.
The altercation began when they tried to stop him roaming the prison unescorted after a visit from his mother. The prison authorities said he had lashed out at the guards. Mr Messier's injuries included a brain bleed.
The corrections commissioner at the time said the officers' actions at the jail, in Bridgewater Massachusetts, had been "professional and appropriate".
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