The Ninth Circuit held two hearings on Monday in a long-standing case focused on mental health care for California inmates, Courthouse News reports. The state appealed two separate issues in a longtime class action, Coleman v. Newsom. In an August 2023 ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller had called for offering patients a 20-hour minimum of mental-health treatment per week. In this week's hearing, the state argued that Mueller set that treatment minimum without finding of facts to justify it; the state also pushed back on judicial limits to telepsychiatry. Attorney Lisa Ells, representing the Coleman class, argued for the 20 hour minimum; having no minimum number of hours would maintain an unconstitutional status quo, she said.
The state is also appealing an order from a lower court, a 2017 ruling that imposed restrictions on telepsychiatry. That order required the inclusion of a telepsychiatry policy in a program guide and prohibited telepsychiatry in some cases. The state had presented a telepsychiatry policy, which wasn’t accepted by the lower court, which instead funneled to a court-appointed special master to work with officials on the policy. Ells said the state has the authority to use telepsychiatry in over 75% of its patients but wants all restrictions removed, which would mean no patient would ever see a therapist in person. Ells argued that the state opted to appeal this issue to the Ninth Circuit because another method of challenging the lower court’s decision, called a Rule 60(b) motion, requires a higher burden.
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