澳彩开奖

U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson ordered state officials to reform the system and directed them to work with the 澳彩开奖 and others who filed the lawsuit three years ago.

Thompson identified multiple areas where the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has failed to maintain a constitutionally adequate mental health care system 鈥� ranging from a failure to identify prisoners with serious mental health needs to inadequate treatment for suicidal prisoners. Thompson鈥檚 302-page ruling comes after a two-month trial that ended in February.

鈥淸T]he evidence from both sides 鈥� materially supported the plaintiffs鈥� claim,鈥� Thompson wrote. He later added: 鈥淪imply put, ADOC鈥檚 mental-health care is horrendously inadequate.鈥�

The ruling caps the second of three phases of a lawsuit filed in 2014 by the 澳彩开奖, the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, and the law firms Baker Donelson, and Zarzaur Mujumdar & Debrosse.

Thompson highlighted a key issue facing the system: 鈥減ersistent and severe shortages of mental-health staff and correctional staff, combined with chronic and significant overcrowding.鈥� The judge noted that during the trial, Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn 鈥渄escribed the prison system as wrestling with a 鈥榯wo-headed monster鈥�: overcrowding and understaffing.鈥�

The judge also noted the ADOC fails to provide individualized treatment plans to prisoners with serious mental health needs as well as psychotherapy by qualified and properly supervised staff and with adequate frequency and sound confidentiality. He also described a system that disciplines mentally ill prisoners for the symptoms of their illness and segregates them for prolonged periods.

鈥淭his ruling means that prisoners with mental illness may finally get the treatment they have been denied for so long,鈥� said Maria Morris, 澳彩开奖 senior supervising attorney. 鈥淭he suffering some of these men and women have endured is excruciating and inhumane. We are pleased Judge Thompson has demanded that the state of Alabama meet its constitutional obligation to provide adequate care.鈥�

Thompson noted that the ADOC has long known about problems plaguing the mental health care it provides to prisoners.

鈥淎DOC officials admitted on the stand that they have done little to nothing to fix problems on the ground, despite their knowledge that those problems may be putting lives at risk,鈥� Thompson wrote.

He noted, 鈥淭he skyrocketing suicide rate within ADOC in the last two years is a testament to the concrete harm that inadequate mental-health care has already inflicted on mentally ill prisoners.鈥�

In 2016, the plaintiffs settled the first phase of the lawsuit regarding violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In that settlement, the ADOC committed to provide services and fair treatment to incarcerated people with disabilities. The third phase in the lawsuit will determine whether the prison system鈥檚 poor medical services violate the Eighth Amendment鈥檚 ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

鈥淔or far too long, Alabama prisons have been little more than warehouses where many people struggling with mental illness have been hidden away and abandoned by the state,鈥� said Lisa Borden, an attorney with Baker Donelson. 鈥淥nce locked behind prison walls, in deplorable conditions with little or no treatment, any hope for improvement or recovery was lost, and many became more profoundly ill. We look forward to now having the opportunity for our clients to receive real treatment for their illnesses, and to seeing them afforded the basic dignity to which any human being is entitled.鈥�

During the trial that began in December, lawyers for the prisoners presented witnesses and evidence depicting a cash-strapped, understaffed prison system whose failure to ensure proper mental health care amounts to 鈥渄eliberate indifference鈥� 鈥� a violation of the U.S. Constitution鈥檚 ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

As the trial progressed, a picture emerged of an Alabama corrections system that rarely connects prisoners with their mental health caregivers, cannot provide them with a safe environment and the therapy they need, and fails to identify those who most need help. The ADOC, it became clear, is fatally slow to respond to suicidal thoughts among prisoners and keen on saving money whenever it can.

Ten days after his testimony, 24-year-old prisoner Jamie Wallace was found dead in his cell from suicide.

Incarcerated witnesses told the judge about horrific conditions, especially in the spaces designated for mental health treatment. Expert witnesses recounted hearing inmates plead with them from their cells during official visits.

鈥淭his place is killing me,鈥� a 24-year-old prisoner named Jamie Wallace had said, 鈥減lease get me out of here.鈥�

During the trial, Wallace testified about the ADOC鈥檚 failure to provide him with treatment other than multiple medications. He told the court that the only times he received even minimal attention from mental health professionals was when he was on suicide watch. Less than a month after his testimony, Wallace died by suicide, alone and unmonitored, in an ADOC prison cell.

After Wallace鈥檚 death, Thompson ordered the ADOC to enact a 15-point plan to better care for suicidal inmates. The judge referenced Wallace鈥檚 testimony and death throughout his order today.

鈥淭he case of Jamie Wallace is powerful evidence of the real, concrete and terribly permanent harms that woefully inadequate mental-health care inflicts on mentally ill prisoners in Alabama,鈥� Thompson wrote.

Several expert witnesses called by the plaintiffs testified about horrible conditions in Alabama鈥檚 prisons, which are among the nation鈥檚 most overcrowded and understaffed. Conditions are so grim and dangerous, said nationally renowned prison psychology expert Dr. Craig Haney, that the ADOC is 鈥渞olling the dice鈥� in its handling of prisoners with mental illness, placing them at 鈥済rave risk.鈥�

Dr. Kathryn Burns, chief psychiatrist at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the ADOC mental health system is the 鈥渨orst system鈥� she鈥檚 ever seen 鈥� so bad that 鈥渋t鈥檚 difficult, really, to call this a system.鈥�

In May, Thompson preliminarily approved a settlement between the parties on the issue of involuntary medication that would protect inmates鈥� due process rights. Under the terms of the settlement, the ADOC must revise the way it decides when a prisoner should receive medication despite his protests.

The court has not yet set a date for the final phase of the case, the challenge to medical and dental care in the prison system.