California Prison Lawsuits Drive Reform

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© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
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San Francisco, CA 94103
Reforming California’s Prison System
in the 21st Century
 Lawsuits
 Legislation
 Initiatives

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Prison Conditions Lawsuits
Seek to improve prison conditions for inmates by:
• Improving the treatment of inmates within the prison
through changes in policy and practice

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Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment : provides legal
basis for challenging inhumane prison conditions
(8th Amendment)
Excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishment inflicted
(14th Amendment)
No state shall deny to any
person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the
laws.

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Prison Lawsuits and Prison Litigation
Reform Act (1996)
Restricted the Ability to File Prison Conditions
Lawsuit

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PLRA Restrictions on prisoner release
to address prison conditions
• Court must have entered a previous order for less intrusive release
• Defendant had reasonable amount of time to comply
• Required a three judge panel
• "The three-judge court shall enter a prisoner release order only if the
court finds by clear and convincing evidence that –
 "(i) crowding is the primary cause of the violation of a Federal
right; and
 "(ii) no other relief will remedy the violation of the Federal right.

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Madrid V Gomes (1995)
Addressing
• Ruling on a constitutional challenge to
the excessive use of force at Pelican
Bay
• Federal district court catalogued the
unnecessary and excessively violent
cell-extractions, the hog-tying of
prisoners, the caging of naked prisoners
outside for long periods of time in cold
and rainy weather and the staff beatings
of prisoners
• Concluded violence used by staff was
not only in good faith efforts to restore
and maintain order, but also for the very
purpose of inflicting punishment and
pain
Addressing inhumane
conditions for inmates in
solitary confinement

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The Plata & Coleman Decisions
Challenging policies of mass incarceration
through litigation

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California Prisons Overcrowding

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California Prisons Overcrowding
• 33 Prisons- Meant to hold 90,000 inmates
• Population reached 172,000 inmates (2004)
• Large disparity of staff:inmates ratio.
• Led to lack of proper care, services, funding, room for
inmates, etc..

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Coleman v. California (1990)
Complaint:
– Improper mental health care for prisoners
• Delays in access to necessary mental health care “at each level of the
mental health care delivery system as it existed in the CDC,” which
“resulted in exacerbation of illness and patient suffering.”
• No “systematic program for screening and evaluating inmates for mental
illness.”
• “supervision of the use of medication was completely inadequate;
prescriptions were not timely refilled, there was no adequate system to
prevent hoarding of medication, . . . inmates on psychotropic
medication were not adequately monitored, and it appeared that some
very useful medications were not available because there was not
enough staff to do necessary post- medication monitoring.”
• “the California Department of Corrections was significantly and
chronically understaffed in the area of mental health care services.”

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Coleman v. California (1990)
• Issues Raised:
– Violated:
• Civil Rights Act of 1871
• 8th and 14th Amendments
• Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• As a Result:
– Special Master appointed to oversee prison
compliance.

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Plata Case (2001)
 inadequate medical screening of incoming prisoners; delays in or failure to
provide access to medical care, including specialist care;
 untimely responses to medical emergencies; the interference of custodial staff
with the provision of medical care;
 the failure to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of competent medical staff;
disorganized and incomplete medical records;
 a “lack of quality control procedures, including lack of physician peer review,
quality assurance and death reviews”;
 a lack of protocols to deal with chronic illnesses, including diabetes, heart
disease, hepatitis, and HIV;
 and the failure of the administrative grievance system to provide timely or
adequate responses to complaints concerning medical care.
 Plaintiffs asserted that the “unconstitutional conditions” caused by defendants’
failure to “properly care for and treat the prisoners in [their] custody . . . caused
widespread harm, including severe and unnecessary pain, injury and death.”
Complaint said that this treatment led to 34 deaths.

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Plata v. Brown (2001)
• Issues Raised:
– Violated 8th Amendment
• Cruel & Unusual Punishment
As a result:
– CDCR medical care is seen as unfit
– Court orders medical care to be in “receivership”
• Receivership limited effect
Lawyers say it is because of severe overcrowding

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What the Cases Revealed
The Special Master and Receivership appointed to the
CDCR as a result of Plata and Coleman showed an
intense overcrowding problem.
– So severe that mental and medical health issues are
seriously affected
• Governor issues “state of emergency” in California prison
system.

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Three Judge Panel (2007)
• Following the Governor’s State of Emergency, the
Plaintiffs from Plata and Coleman move to have a three-
judge court limit the prison population.
• The court grants motion; and orders defendants (CDCR)
to submit a plan within 45 days detailing "a population
reduction plan that will in no more than two years reduce
the population of the CDCR’s adult institutions to 137.5%
of their combined design capacity.”

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Results of Coleman/Plata
• The Plata and Coleman cases revealed the true
conditions that exist in the CA Prison System.
• They forced the state government to improve health
care.
• Led to court decree ordering the state to address the
overcrowding
• Mandated the improvement of overall conditions

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US Supreme Court Rules (May 2011)
California Prisons Violate Constitutional
Conditions and orders state to reduce prison
population

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The criminal justice Realignment law
(Assembly Bills 109)
Effective October 1, 2011

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Provisions of Realignment Law
• People convicted of felonies with prison sentences of three years or
less will serve sentences in county jails (local jail felony)
• Created release community supervision
• Allows home detention to be substituted for state prison confinement
• Revocations for post release violations can be recommitted for no
more than 180 days
• County jail good time calculated at one for one
• Counties can use home detention in lieu of jail
• Counties provided with funding to expand community corrections
services
• Extended day-for-day good time credits for prison inmates

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Change in prison population after realignment
Imprisonment rate, 2010Major county* Percent change Dec 31, 2011 June 30, 2011
Solano -16% 1,351 1,614 381.0
Placer -16% 801 952 305.3
Yolo -15% 943 1,115 465.8
Kings -14% 1,385 1,618 1,145.7
San Francisco -14% 1,269 1,482 110.3
San Joaquin -14% 3,021 3,522 419.0
Tehama -14% 430 501 434.0
Stanislaus -14% 2,149 2,503 313.0
Kern -14% 4,387 5,101 363.7
Butte -14% 1,138 1,319 688.7
Merced -14% 877 1,015 305.4
San Bernardino -13% 10,558 12,182 410.4
Fresno -12% 4,281 4,846 356.9
Shasta -12% 1,339 1,515 744.4
Yuba -12% 444 502 450.6
Orange -11% 7,988 9,023 380.3
Santa Barbara -11% 1,392 1,565 451.4
Madera -11% 564 633 502.7
San Luis Obispo -11% 691 774 341.9
Humboldt -10% 515 575 302.1
Ventura -10% 1,992 2,222 283.2
San Diego -10% 10,824 11,967 408.3
Statewide -9% 148,770 164,143 407.1
Santa Clara -9% 4,936 5,426 401.0
Alameda -9% 3,918 4,295 284.9
Tulare -8% 2,653 2,891 442.4
Sacramento -7% 7,174 7,754 461.5
Monterey -7% 1,660 1,794 429.2
Los Angeles -7% 50,569 54,296 494.9
Santa Cruz -7% 515 552 199.1
Riverside -7% 10,151 10,866 583.8
San Mateo -6% 1,484 1,582 310.9
Sonoma -5% 1,169 1,229 246.3
Contra Costa -5% 1,852 1,945 179.1

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Voter Initiatives
Reigning in the Correctional Industrial
Complex

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Governor Hiram Johnson (1911-
1917): Reform Through Direct
Democracy
 Referendum
 Recall
 Initiative

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Proposition 36 (2000) Drug Treatment
instead of Incarceration
• non-violent drug possession offenses to receive a
probationary sentence in lieu of incarceration
• condition of probation defendants are required to
participate in and complete a licensed and/or certified
community drug treatment program.
• If the defendant fails to complete this program or violates
any other term or condition of their probation, then
probation can be revoked and the defendant may be
required to serve an additional sentence which may
include incarceration

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Proposition 36 of 2012:
3 Strikes Sentencing Reform
 Revises the three strikes law to impose life sentence
only when the new felony conviction is "serious or
violent."
• Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving
life sentences if their third strike conviction was not
serious or violent
• Continues to impose a life sentence penalty if the third
strike conviction was for "certain non-serious, non-violent
sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession.
• Maintains the life sentence penalty for felons with "non-
serious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were
for rape, murder, or child molestation."

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Proposition 47 (Sentencing Reform)
Reduces imprisonment by the reclassification
of certain crimes from felonies to
misdemeanors and reduces certain drug
possession felonies to misdemeanors.

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Prop 47 Reclassifies the following crimes
• Simple drug possession
• Petty theft under $950
• Shoplifting under $950
• Forging or writing bad check under $950
• Receipt of stolen property under $950

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Proposition 57: Public Safety and
Rehabilitation Act of 2016
(1) Parole consideration: Any person convicted of a non-
violent felony offense and sentenced to state prison shall
be eligible for parole consideration after completing the full
term for his or her primary offense.
(2) Credit Earning: The Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation shall have authority to award credits earned
for good behavior and approved rehabilitative or
educational achievements.

California Prison Lawsuits Drive Reform

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