HOUSTON (AP) - A Houston man alleges in a federal lawsuit that the state psychiatric prison where he was held was deliberately understaffed and that this prevented anyone from stopping him from using a plastic spoon to blind himself during a psychiatric episode.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Miguel Carrera leveled the accusation in an amended complaint filed Monday.

Carrera says he's had mental health problems for years and that while being held at an East Texas psychiatric prison in 2017 for an assault conviction, staff kept him undermedicated and didn't properly monitor him even though he had threatened to harm himself.

Carrera gouged out one eye and tried to gouge out the other, which left him blind.

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

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