The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held hearings Friday in a decadeslong class action focused on mental health care for California inmates who claim the state isn’t doing enough to address serious mental disorders in the corrections system, Courthouse News reports. The state argued that a lower court overstepped its authority by levying a $6.7 million fine for every month the state is out of compliance with previous court orders. The bill has topped $130 million. “The underlying question is ‘What Eighth Amendment rights do incarcerated persons — that are covered by this action — have to get medical treatment?’” said U.S. Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr/ The court proceedings stem from a 1990 class action over mental health care in state prisons. A group of California prisoners with mental illnesses claim the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation didn’t provide adequate mental health servicess.
After a trial in 1995, a federal judge in Sacramento issued an injunction requiring major changes in the prison mental health system. The court found prison officials violated the Eight Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause by failing to provide adequate mental health care. Today, the case covers all prisoners with serious mental disorders housed in California prisons — around 34,000 people known as the “Coleman class.” Before a three-judge panel, attorneys for the state argued that a lower court erred when it held the state in contempt for not complying with a previous order to increase the number of mental health staff, which dropped dramatically in recent years. The state claims it was required to do the impossible. “No matter what, if you’re there, you’re still working in a jail,” said Deputy Attorney General Randall Zack. In a different hearing for the same case, the parties argued over whether the language in a lower court order means expanding specialized care to the entire class of patients. Deputy Attorney General Oliver Wu, who represents the state, argued the lower court abused its discretion when it ordered the state to provide treatment for personality disorders that is currently used in other prison systems.
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