Wyatt by and through Rawlins v. Rogers
| Decision Date | 15 December 1997 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3195-N. |
| Citation | 985 F.Supp. 1356 |
| Parties | Ricky WYATT, By and Through his aunt and legal guardian, Mrs. W.C. RAWLINS, Jr., et al., Plaintiffs, Diane Martin, et al., Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. Virginia ROGERS, as Commissioner of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and the State of Alabama Mental Health Officer, et al., Defendants, United States of America, Amicus Curiae. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Fern Singer, Watterson & Singer, Birmingham, AL, James A. Tucker, ACLU of Alabama, Montgomery, AL, Ira A. Burnim, Andrew Bridge, Shelley Jackson, Claudia Schlosberg, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Washington, DC, Michael S. Scheier, Birmingham, AL, James M. Lichtman, Ropes & Gray, Washington, DC, Kathryn H. Sumrall, Jackson, Garrison & Sumrall, P.C., Birmingham, AL, for plaintiffs.
David Ferleger, Philadelphia, PA, Drew P. Baker, Reuben Wright Cook, Victoria Ann Farr, Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, Tuscaloosa, AL, for intervenor-plaintiff.
Joel Klein, Klein, Farr, Smith & Taranto, Washington, DC, Robert F. Northcutt, Robison & Belser, P.A., Mary Elizabeth Culberson, Office of Atty. Gen., Gregory Dale Crosslin, Robert E. Sasser, Clifton E. Slaten, Sasser & Littleton, P.C., G.R. (Rick) Trawick, Department of Mental Health & Mental Retardation, Montgomery, AL, Paul Smith, Genner & Block, Washington, DC, for defendants.
Pamela Chen, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC, Kenneth E. Vines, U.S. Attorney's Office, Montgomery, AL, Deval L. Patrick, Robinsue Frohboese, Judith C. Preston, Tawana E. Davis, United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, Washington, DC, for U.S.
This class-action lawsuit, commonly referred to as the "Wyatt litigation," was filed over 26 years ago by the plaintiffs (who represent all current and future mentally-retarded and mentally-ill residents in the Alabama Mental Health and Mental Retardation System) against the defendants (officials of the State of Alabama), claiming that conditions in the system's facilities violated residents' rights under state and federal law. In 1986, the court approved a consent decree resolving the parties' continued conflicts over the defendants' compliance with orders entered in the early 1970's and the adequacy of the state's funding and administration of the state's mental health and retardation facilities. Wyatt v. Wallis, 1986 WL 69194 (M.D.Ala. Sept.22, 1986) (Thompson, J.).
In 1991, a new round of litigation began. On January 18, 1991, the defendants moved for a finding that they have met their obligations under the 1986 decree and for an order terminating this lawsuit. On January 22, 1993, the plaintiffs moved to enforce the 1986 consent decree and for further relief in light of both the defendants' continuing failure to comply with the 1986 consent decree and the recently enacted Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, commonly referred to as the "ADA," 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 12101-12213. The court held a hearing on these motions for 35-trial days, spanning over several months, in 1995. The trial was followed by extensive briefing of the parties.
The hearing was, by agreement of the parties, a `summary proceeding.' To try this case as a normal trial would have taken many months and the parties therefore agreed to try it as a summary proceeding. As a summary proceeding, the evidence was submitted in a jointly prepared record before the hearing, and both the defendants' and the plaintiffs' live and in-court examination of witnesses was limited to 60 hours of direct and 30 hours of cross-examination, with rebuttal testimony limited to two days. The purpose of the live testimony was to highlight the most pertinent and relevant parts of the already filed record.1 Nevertheless, the record that the court has had to review is comparable to that of a trial lasting many months.
Subsequent to the trial, on October 8, 1996, the court held that the plaintiffs' failure to follow proper court procedures for obtaining the defendants' compliance with the 1986 consent decree warranted denial of their motion for enforcement except to the extent the plaintiffs seek relief other than under the consent decree. Wyatt v. Rogers, 942 F.Supp. 518 (M.D.Ala.1996) (Thompson, J.).
Based on the hearing and the evidentiary record and for the reasons that follow, the court now concludes that the defendants' motion for a finding that they have met their obligations under the 1986 decree and for an order terminating this lawsuit should be granted in part and denied in part, and that the plaintiffs' motion for relief other than under the 1986 consent decree should be denied.
Because, as will be explained later, the court must determine whether defendants have complied in good faith with the whole of the 1986 consent decree since its entry, it is necessary that the court provide a detailed historical review of the defendants' past conduct and current attitudes.
This longstanding lawsuit began in 1970 when two classes of plaintiffs, former employees at Bryce Hospital and current patients, filed a complaint against various officials of the State of Alabama alleging that staff reductions deprived patients of their rights under state and federal law.2 Since this date there have been four different phases of Wyatt litigation.
In the 1970's, in expansive and landmark opinions, the court, speaking through Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., found that conditions in the facilities operated by the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation violated patients' constitutional rights, and the court entered injunctions requiring the defendants to bring the facilities into compliance with certain minimal constitutional standards.
WYATT STANDARDS ESTABLISHED: Beginning in 1971, the court found that the programs of treatment in use for the mentally ill at Bryce Hospital were "scientifically and medically inadequate" and that the treatment "failed to conform to any known minimums established for providing treatment for the mentally ill."3 Wyatt v. Stickney, 325 F.Supp. 781, 784 (M.D.Ala.1971) (Johnson, J.). The court further found that the majority of patients were involuntarily committed through noncriminal procedures and therefore had an unquestionable constitutional right "to receive such individual treatment as will give each of them a realistic opportunity to be cured or to improve his or her mental condition." Id. The court, therefore, ordered the defendants to develop and implement within six months a treatment program to secure these rights. Id. at 785. Nine months later, the court reviewed the defendants' progress in securing these rights. The evidence indicated that the treatment at Bryce Hospital continued to be "wholly inadequate." Wyatt v. Stickney, 334 F.Supp. 1341, 1344 (M.D.Ala.1971) (Johnson, J.). Bryce lacked a humane psychological and physical environment, qualified staff in numbers sufficient to administer adequate treatment, and individualized treatment plans. Id. at 1343. As evidence of an inhumane psychological and physical environment, the court pointed to the fact that residents lived in barn-like structures with no privacy, they were provided shoddy apparel, and given non-therapeutic work to do. The facility was plagued by ventilation problems, fire and safety hazards, and overcrowding. And the defendants spent only 50 cents a day on providing food to each resident. As for staffing, Bryce was deficient in all areas. Not only did it not have enough staff, nonprofessional staff was poorly trained. And as to treatment, the records kept on patients were less than adequate and the treatment was geared to housekeeping functions only, not to improving the lot of the patient. Id. at 1343-44. The defendants were essentially warehousing patients in an inhumane environment. The court later enlarged the litigation to include patients involuntarily confined for mental treatment purposes at Searcy Hospital for the mentally ill and Partlow State School and Hospital for the mentally retarded and found that the conditions at these hospitals were no better than those at Bryce. Id. at 1344.
Noting that the plaintiffs' rights were "present ones, and they must be not only declared but secured at the earliest practicable date," the court held a hearing in order to establish minimum standards to be met by these facilities. Id. at 1344. After that hearing, in 1972, the court entered injunctions requiring the defendants to bring state facilities into compliance with certain minimum constitutional standards. Wyatt v. Stickney, 344 F.Supp. 373 (M.D.Ala.1972) () (Johnson, J.), aff'd in relevant part, 503 F.2d 1305 (5th Cir.1974); Wyatt v. Stickney, 344 F.Supp. 387 (M.D.Ala. 1972) () (Johnson, J.), aff'd in relevant part, 503 F.2d 1305 (5th Cir.1974). These mental-illness and mental-retardation standards, which were developed with the assistance of the parties and experts in the fields of mental health and mental retardation, are commonly known as the `Wyatt standards.' The Wyatt standards were designed to meet what the district court called the three "fundamental conditions for adequate and effective treatment," Wyatt, 334 F.Supp. at 1343: "(1) a humane psychological and physical environment, (2) qualified staff in numbers sufficient to administer adequate treatment and (3) individualized treatment plans." Id. Over the years, the court has periodically revisited these standards at the parties' request, and has from time to time approved modifications to these standards in order to bring them into compliance with evolving professional standards. See, e.g., Wyatt v. Poundstone, 1995 WL 430939 (M.D.Ala. July 11, 1995) ...
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