By Mike Cason
Alabama Media Group, Birmingham
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The chief psychiatrist for Alabama prisons testified that inmates are screened for mental illness, given a treatment plan if they are ill and provided needed medication regardless of cost.
Dr. Robert Hunter, medical director for MHM Alabama, took the witness stand for the third day today in a federal non-jury trial over the quality of mental health care in Alabama prisons.
Inmates and their advocates claim in the class-action lawsuit that a failure to provide adequate mental health care violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Department of Corrections disputes the allegations.
Today was the fourth day of the trial in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson.
The case, expected to last about eight weeks, is moving slower than expected, Thompson told the lawyers this morning.
MHM Alabama, part of MHM Services, has provided mental health care in prisons under contract with the Department of Corrections since 2001.
The inmates, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, called MHM’s Hunter as a witness.
Today, lawyers defending DOC officials cross-examined Hunter.
Hunter described how inmates are evaluated for mental health problems when they enter the prison system.
He said inmates who are identified as mentally ill receive a treatment plan that can include one-on-one counseling, group counseling and medication.
Hunter said medication is generally prescribed to inmates when a psychiatrist or nurse practitioner determines their ability to function is impaired.
Hunter said inmates are never denied medication because of the cost.
Bill Lunsford, a lawyer with Maynard Cooper & Gale who is defending DOC officials, said Hunter’s testimony countered the plaintiffs’ claims that cost-cutting is a factor in care.
“What Dr. Hunter has pointed out is that cost is really not a consideration when it comes to mental health care,” Lunsford said. “That when they decide, for example, which patients receive which medications, that contrary to what’s been publicized, it’s just simply not true that cost is being taken into consideration.”
The lawsuit alleges that MHM’s staff is too small and lacks the expertise to provide sufficient care, among other claims.
SPLC attorney Maria Morris said some of the documented interactions between mental health staff and inmates might be more for the purpose of “checking boxes” than substantive treatment.
Morris said a shortage of security staff, which DOC acknowledges, is a factor in what she said is substandard care. For example, she said group counseling opportunities are curtailed.
“We’ll be putting on evidence of places where group counseling, to the extent that it’s scheduled at all, which is very limited, is cancelled because there’s no custody officer available to provide security,” Morris said.
The plaintiffs had called two inmates as witnesses on Monday.
After Hunter’s testimony this afternoon, they called another inmate to testify.
That inmate is expected to return to the stand on Friday morning.