Coleman v. Newsom
| Decision Date | 06 January 2023 |
| Docket Number | 2:90-cv-0520 KJM DB P |
| Parties | RALPH COLEMAN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. GAVIN NEWSOM, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
For more than a quarter century, the court has supervised this case, which plaintiffs filed to correct Eighth Amendment violations in the delivery of mental health care to persons with serious mental disorders incarcerated in California prisons.[1] See Coleman v. Wilson, 912 F.Supp. 1282 (E.D. Cal. 1995). The court's 1995 order established the fundamental requirements for full remediation. Over the past twenty-five years, while the state has made progress toward meeting its Eighth Amendment obligation to the plaintiff class, this court, as well as a three-judge district court and the United States Supreme Court, have confirmed there are ongoing constitutional violations in the delivery of mental health care to these incarcerated persons. The state repeatedly has fallen short of its constitutional obligations in a number of critical areas: suicide prevention; the treatment of mentally ill inmates in administrative segregation; those inmates' access to higher levels of care, including mental health crisis beds; and staffing. See, e.g., July 23, 2007 Order, ECF No. 2320; Coleman v. Brown, 938 F.Supp.2d 955, 973-89 (E.D. Cal. 2013); see also, e.g. Coleman v. Schwarzenegger, 922 F.Supp. 2dat 888, 919 929-30, 948, 955-56; Brown v. Plata, 563 U.S. 493 503-04, 519, 523 (2011). The state also has lagged in developing the tools that would allow its own monitoring of prison mental health care again, as well as in fixing the data systems required for accurate monitoring. See, e.g., Sept. 30, 2020 Order, ECF No. 6846; Coleman v. Newsom, 424 F.Supp.3d 925 (E.D. Cal. 2019).
At this point, two ongoing serious violations stand out and prompt the court's issuance of this order inviting the United States Attorney General to once again participate in this case.
First is staffing. Defendants have not, in more than twenty-five years, achieved constitutionally adequate mental health staffing levels. Today, more than 32,000 inmates with serious mental disorders live in California's prisons, and they account for more than a third of the state's total inmate population. See Appendix A to this order, Mental Health Services Delivery System (MHSDS) Management Information Summary (MIS) Report dated December 19, 2022 (total census for CDCR MHSDS is 32,544); cf. ECF No. 7683 at 2. Faced with the persistently high population of mentally ill incarcerated persons, the state has failed to staff its prisons with the number of mental health professionals required to provide class members constitutionally adequate care. See, e.g., June 13, 2002 Order, ECF No. 1383 (). By 2009, defendants produced a staffing plan that, if implemented, would have brought the state into compliance. See Oct. 10, 2017 Order, ECF No. 5711, at 11. But by 2017, eight years later, the state had not yet fully implemented its plan, nor had it complied with the court's order issued in August 2016 to provide a “measurable timeline” for achievement of constitutionally adequate staffing levels. Id. at, e.g., 11. The court therefore gave defendants one year to “take all steps necessary to come into complete compliance with” their staffing plan and the ten percent vacancy rate. Id. at 30. The state again fell short. Today, more than four years later, defendants still have not complied. See ECF Nos. 7674, 7677.
Second is suicide prevention. Total inmate suicides in California have ranged from a low of 15 in 2000 and 2021 to a high of 43 in 2005 and 2006; the total reached 38 as recently as 2019. In 2019, and the two preceding years, California's inmate suicide rate was the “4th highest out of the ten largest correctional systems in the United States.” See ECF No. 7239 at 12. In February 2015, the court ordered defendants to adopt a series of recommendations provided by the Special Master's court-approved expert, Lindsay Hayes, M.S. Feb. 3, 2015 Order, ECF No. 5271. Defendants did not object to any of Mr. Hayes' recommendations. Id. at 2. Despite a series of court orders to implement the recommendations, fifteen of twenty-nine remain outstanding. See Jan. 6, 2023 Order, ECF No. 7696 ().
Staffing and suicide prevention are but two examples of the unacceptable delays in achieving constitutional compliance in this case. As a result, the court is at a critical crossroads. The plaintiff class has waited far too long for constitutionally adequate mental health care, and serious enforcement action on a number of fronts is past due. At the same time, the court recognizes enforcement proceedings likely will further delay this case and frustrate its fundamental purpose of ensuring constitutionally adequate care now for California's incarcerated mentally ill. Further delay is particularly likely given that the state has adopted a distracting and costly scorched-earth litigation strategy, prosecuting more than a dozen appeals and mandamus petitions within the last five years alone, none successful.[2] During this same time period, the court has found the state to have engaged in knowing presentation of misleading evidence to the court and its Special Master. See Coleman v. Newsom, 424 F.Supp.3d at, e.g., 952. While contributing to delay, the state's litigation strategy also appears to have substantially interfered with the dedicated efforts of many within CDCR itself-from the Secretary to mental health administrators to clinicians-to remedy constitutional violations in good faith. It also appears to have blocked the possibility of further court-convened settlement efforts. See Reporter's Transcript of Proceedings (RT 4/22/22), ECF No. 7540, at 50-53.
The ultimate resolution of this case implicates the interests of the United States. As it previously has informed the court, the United States has a “broad interest in ensuring that conditions of confinement in state . . . correctional facilities are consistent with the Constitution and federal law.” Statement of Interest of the United States of America, ECF No. 4736, at 2; see also 28 U.S.C. § 517.[3] In other comparable circumstances, the United States has participated in an action to “encourag[e] state officials to take action to safeguard the rights” of incarcerated persons and to “ensur[e] ‘conservation of judicial resources.'” Ruiz v. Estelle, 679 F.2d 1115, 1135-36 (), amended in part, vacated in part on other grounds, 688 F.2d 266 (5th Cir. 1982).
For these reasons, the court invites the United States Attorney General to advise the court whether he will participate in this action until its conclusion, assuming the role of amicus at a minimum. In particular, the court invites the Attorney General to address two of the most pressing issues identified above by providing:
The Attorney General is welcome to address any other issue the court has identified in this order, or otherwise implicated by this case.
In accordance with the above, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
1. The Clerk of the Court is directed to serve a copy of this order on Phillip A. Talbert, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, and David Shelledy, Chief, Civil Division, United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, with the request that they promptly provide a copy of this order to the United States Attorney General.
2. The court requests a response from the United States Attorney General within thirty days from the date of this order.
3. The United States Attorney General is informed the court will hold a status conference in this matter on February 10, 2023 at 10 a.m. in the event he...
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