CJCJ's Executive Director Daniel Macallair, is a practitioner-in-residence at San Francisco State University (SFSU)'s Department of Criminal Justice Studies. These slides are from his California Corrections System course materials.

1. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
The Plata & Coleman Decisions
California Corrections

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© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Eighth Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel
and unusual punishment
inflicted

3. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
California Prisons Overcrowding

4. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
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..

5. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Plata v. Brown (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.

6. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
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

7. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Coleman v. Brown (1990)

8. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
California Prison Overcrowding

9. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Coleman v. Brown (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.”

10. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Coleman v. Schwarzenegger (1990)
• Issues Raised:
– Violated:
• Civil Rights Act of 1871
• 8th and 14th Amendments
• Rehabilitiation Act of 1973
• As a Result:
– Special Master appointed to oversee prison
compliance.

11. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
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.

12. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Three Judge Panel
• 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.”

13. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
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

14. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
US Supreme Court Rules (May 2011)
California Prisons Violate Constitutional
Conditions and orders state to reduce prison
population

15. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
The criminal justice Realignment law
(ab 109)
Effective October 1, 2011

16. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
Provisions of Realignment Law
• People convicted of felonies with prison sentences of
three years or less will serve sentences in county jails
• 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

17. www.cjcj.org
© Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice 2013
40 Boardman Place
San Francisco, CA 94103
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