Federal court orders monitors for mental health care in Alabama prisons
Montgomery AdvertiserSep 03, 2020
A federal judge Wednesday ordered external monitors to keep track of the
DOC and a group of plaintiffs who sued the department over inadequate mental health care had agreed to the monitoring, but could not reach a consensus on its implementation. In his order, U.S. District Judge
"ADOC has had ample opportunity, in this litigation and for decades prior, to correct voluntarily its failings regarding the mental health care in its prisons, and its conduct during the course of this case has been consistent with its historical failures to do so,” Thompson wrote.
A message seeking comment was sent to DOC on Thursday.
“The court’s order requiring long-term external and internal compliance monitoring will hopefully ensure that people with mental health needs will finally receive the humane and just treatment they deserve.”
Inmates in
Negotiations over implementation have continued and DOC has made changes, including implementing a remedial suicide plan. The families of four men who died by suicide in
More: Families sue
The external monitors will remain for at least a year, according to the order. They will also train a team of internal monitors to allow DOC to take over the role. Thompson will decide when DOC can handle internal monitoring, and only after a hearing between the parties.
Attorneys for DOC and the plaintiffs told Thompson in March they could agree on a monitoring program.
Thompson said he would allow both sides to propose members of the team, though he would have to approve them. The judge wrote some of the monitors proposed by DOC had potential conflicts of interest.
DOC also sought to limit the ability of plaintiffs to bring contempt proceedings against the department for noncompliance, requiring at least three consecutive quarters of noncompliance to take place before doing so. Thompson rejected the proposal, writing that three quarters was too long for the department to stay in noncompliance on matters like suicide risk. Thompson did order mediation to take place before contempt proceedings could occur.
The judge wrote that DOC wanted more freedom to develop its own monitoring plans as a way to promote “buy-in” in the program. Thompson wrote that buy-in would occur in part by “appointing monitors in which all parties have faith.”
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