From MercuryNews.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A legal case that has lasted more than two decades and brought systemic changes to California’s prison system ended Monday after a federal judge determined the state corrections department had made sufficient reforms to protect inmates from being abused by officers.
The lawsuit led to policies limiting officers’ use of force and added protection for mentally ill inmates. It also prompted the state to create an independent inspector general in the corrections department and an office to oversee investigations of alleged employee wrongdoing.
The reforms were the result of a lawsuit filed in 1990 alleging that inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte County were being abused.
U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco ruled in the inmates’ favor in 1995, finding that prison officials had “permitted and condoned a pattern of using excessive force.” In 2004, he extended the court’s oversight to include abuse investigations and employee discipline throughout the adult prison system.
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