Federal Ct Finds Alabama to be “Deliberately Indifferent" to the Mental Health of Prisoners in Isolation, in Violation of the 8th Amendment Prohibition Against Cruel & Unusual Punishment
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From [HERE] and [HERE] A federal court ruled Monday that Alabama’s prison system fails to adequately evaluate the mental health of inmates during isolation in segregation cells. The ruling was the latest development in the lawsuit, Braggs v. Dunn, that the SPLC and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) filed in June 2014.
The treatment of the inmates is unconstitutional and violates the Eighth Amendment, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote in a ruling that found the Alabama Department of Corrections to be “deliberately indifferent” to the treatment of the prisoners in isolation.
The court’s a 66-page decision released publicly Monday accompanies a 2017 ruling that found mental health care in Alabama’s prisons to be “horrendously inadequate.”
A federal court ruled Monday that Alabama’s prison system fails to adequately evaluate the mental health of inmates during isolation in segregation cells.
The treatment of the inmates is unconstitutional and violates the Eighth Amendment, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote in a ruling that found the Alabama Department of Corrections to be “deliberately indifferent” to the treatment of the prisoners in isolation.
The court’s a 66-page decision released publicly Monday accompanies a 2017 ruling that found mental health care in Alabama’s prisons to be “horrendously inadequate.”
Thompson's scathing ruling — which calls ADOC's mental health evaluations "so cursory as not to be worth the paper they are written on" — comes days after the state acknowledged a spate of suicides in Alabama prisons. Thirteen people have died by suicides in Alabama prisons within the last 14 months, with six occurring since November 2018.
“It has been evident for years that ADOC has failed to identify, monitor, and properly care for people who have serious mental illnesses and who develop them in ADOC custody,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. “That systematic failure has led to needless suffering, especially for people in segregation. We are sorry ADOC didn’t do anything to remedy the situation during the last year and a half, as hundreds or thousands of men and women suffered in ADOC segregation units, and ultimately as 13 people took their own lives. We look forward to addressing the remedy with ADOC as soon as possible.”
The Alabama Disability Advocacy Program and the Southern Poverty Law Center brought the lawsuit, Braggs v. Dunn, in 2014 that led to the 2017 ruling and the new ruling Monday. The mental health care aspect of the lawsuit is only the first phase of the suit. A second phase of the suit concerning dental care will go to trial in late 2019 or early 2020. A third phase will follow and focus on medical care.
“It has been evident for years that ADOC has failed to identify, monitor, and properly care for people who have serious mental illnesses and who develop them in ADOC custody. That systematic failure has led to needless suffering, especially for people in segregation,” said Maria Morris, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC. “We are only sorry ADOC didn’t do anything to remedy the situation during the last year and a half, as hundreds or thousands of men and women suffered in ADOC segregation units, and ultimately as 13 people took their own lives. We look forward to addressing the remedy with ADOC as soon as possible.”
The new ruling comes as Gov. Kay Ivey is considering a plan to reform Alabama’s prison system. In her State of the State Address, she called for an “Alabama solution” to an “Alabama problem.”
Former Gov. Robert Bentley tried to alleviate overcrowding and poor conditions in prisons by proposing a plan to build four new regional prisons to replace Alabama’s aging 15 correctional facilities. That plan failed two years in a row.
Last week, the SPLC called on the Legislature and Ivey to address the suicide crisis in Alabama’s prisons.
