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Judge seeks long-range remedy on mental health care in Ala. prisons

The hearings are the next step in a lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program and others

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Julie Bennett

By Mike Cason
al.com

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Four years after finding that mental health care in Alabama prisons was “horrendously inadequate,” U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson is holding hearings to develop a long-range plan to maintain care that meets constitutional standards.

It’s the next step in a lawsuit filed in 2014 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, and others over medical care, mental health care, and accommodations for inmates with disabilities.

The hearings are expected to last about five weeks, according to the SPLC.

Thompson’s ruling four years ago started a remedial phase of the mental health portion of the case. Since then, the judge has issued a series of agreed-upon orders to improve care. Now the goal is for a durable plan that the court can evaluate over time with a team of monitors.

In Thompson’s order setting the hearings that began Monday, the judge wrote that the plan should not be overly intrusive but should recognize the seriousness of the violations the court found.

“Developing this omnibus order will be a difficult and complex process,” Thompson wrote in December.

“But the court has an obligation to proceed deliberately and carefully in developing a final remedy that addresses the serious constitutional violations it has found and that will be a durable solution for the monitors to help ADOC implement.”

Lawyers for the state and lawyers representing the inmates issued proposed remedial plans. Both sides will have a chance to present evidence and testimony during the hearings, including expert witnesses. Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn is on the witness list.

The lawsuit is separate from one filed by the Department of Justice against the Alabama Department of Corrections last year. In that case, the DOJ claims that conditions in Alabama prisons violate the U.S. Constitution because of the levels of violence, sexual abuse, excessive use of force by correctional officers, and other problems. The ADOC acknowledges problems but denies the claim that conditions violate the Constitution.

The mental health and DOJ lawsuits have some overlapping issues, including the overcrowded and understaffed conditions in Alabama’s men’s prisons.
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