PROVIDENCE — A disability rights organization is investigating the treatment and death of a former patient in the psychiatric wing of the Rhode Island state hospital who died less than two months after her discharge.

Charlene Marie Liberty was 38 years old, according to her obituary.

She has only now been identified as the patient at the center of a controversial contraband search at the state hospital that led to allegations of patient abuse. 

And she died a "victim of the system," according to Morna Murray, the executive director of Disability Rights Rhode Island.

The state agency that runs the Eleanor Slater Hospital would neither confirm nor deny the details surrounding the patient's discharge to her mother.

A spokesman said: "Based on laws concerning patient privacy, ESH does not confirm or deny the presence of any person as a former or current patient. Regardless of any name you inquire about, for the same reason, ESH does not provide information about anyone with regard to dates of discharge or post-discharge locations."

Days before her release, however, a psychiatrist signed a statement warning that Liberty's "unsupervised presence in the community would create a likelihood of...substantial harm to herself or others."

The psychiatrist's Feb. 1 statement  - independently obtained by The Journal - was based on her history of self-harm and "suicidal behaviors, including swallowing razor blades, hitting her head against walls, and overdosing on medications."

Separately, Murray issued this statement on behalf of Disability Rights R.I. on Wednesday night in response to a Journal inquiry: 

“Charlene Liberty was hospitalized at Eleanor Slater Hospital and was abruptly discharged on February 10, 2022.

"Without sufficient community supports, Ms. Liberty tragically died on April 7, 2022. Disability Rights Rhode Island is conducting an investigation into Ms. Liberty’s treatment, discharge, and death.”

"We mourn the loss of a victim of the system," Murray wrote.

And "we vow to not let her death be in vain as we investigate the failures of the systems that are intended to protect the most vulnerable among us, and instead too often lead to harm and even death."

She was a mother, daughter and sister "whose death at the age of 38 was far too soon," Murray said.

She was also a prisoner, before she was a patient and the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, Liberty v. Rhode Island Department of Corrections, according to Murray.

The lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court alleges the state prison system  "subject(s) hundreds of people to prolonged solitary confinement in tiny, frequently filthy cells where they are kept locked down for 22 to 24 hours a day for weeks, months, and even years at a time...(with) little human contact or access to exercise, fresh air and sunlight."

In Liberty's case, the lawsuit alleges: "The conditions in solitary confinement [drove] Ms. Liberty to engage in serious self-injurious behaviors, including multiple suicide attempts.

"Exacerbating her mental health problems, Defendants... ordered that she be placed in leg shackles and belly chains, as well as a restraint chair, and that pepper-spray be used to address self-harm behaviors."

Murray said: "Ms. Liberty’s struggles in institutional settings are well documented and, tragically, all too common.

"Like many people with mental illness, she was trapped in a system that failed to meet her needs and led to the Rhode Island prison system where she joined the 15-20% of inmates with serious mental illness.

"Like too many of her fellow inmates with mental illness, Charlene was placed into solitary confinement. She was isolated and suffered severe mistreatment that made her feel 'less than human, depressed, unworthy….and wanting to kill (herself).'” 

"Eventually that prison cell was replaced with a state psychiatric hospital where she faced new abuses. She was discharged, untreated and unsupported, without even the most fundamental community services she needed to, literally, stay alive."

"May Charlene Liberty’s legacy be that our mental health system treats people like her with compassion, effective services, and the community-based supports they need to recover and live in peace."

Liberty's sister, Elisha Liberty, told The Journal that the Charlene her family knew was a "soft-spoken person," who loved to draw, liked to roller-blade and "was a bit of a tomboy" growing up.

She later went "nightclubbing with her friends and started dabbling into doing drugs, and eventually got hooked on drugs and that led her to prison. She was fighting it with Jesus...[which] was her way of trying to escape her situation. But it wasn't enough for her."

Elisha LIberty said she was initially relieved that Charlene had been moved from prison to the state hospital. "I thought that the Eleanor Slater was a better place than the prison and what was happening to her in prison... [but[ when she got moved to Eleanor Slater she was really abused." 

"She felt over-medicated....She would tell me taht she would tell them the meds made her feel usntable in her head and they weren't listening to her." 

On April 12, Jeanne Natale, the director of investigations for DRRI, put Richard Charest, the director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, on notice that the circumstances leading up to Liberty's death were under investigation.

She requested video of Liberty on the day before and the day of her discharge.

She also requested a copy of Liberty's complete medical record and the hospital's discharge plan for her.

Liberty was the unnamed patient whose actions within the state hospital — including the alleged stockpiling and swallowing of a fistful of pills -  led hospital administrators to bring in a dozen of so prison guards to do a contraband search.

DRRI alleged patient abuse after viewing a five-hour video of the search.

The contraband search followed the attempted suicide of then-unnamed patient, who had a history of self-harm and was supposed to be under constant supervision.