PRESS RELEASE January 29, 2002
STATE SETTLES HUGE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FOR PRISONER MEDICAL CARE

Contact: Donald Specter (415) 457-9144

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A settlement of the largest ever class action lawsuit on prison conditions was filed today in federal court in San Francisco. This lawsuit was the first in California to allege a state-wide failure to provide adequate medical care. Almost 160,000 prisoners are incarcerated in California's prisons.

The lawsuit, Plata v. Davis, alleged that state officials charged with running the nation's largest prison system were inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on prisoners by being deliberately indifferent to their serious medical needs. The lawsuit was filed in April 2001.

The settlement requires the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to completely overhaul its medical policies and procedures, and to pump significant resources into the prisons to ensure timely access to adequate care. The settlement allows the state to phase in the new policies and procedures over several years, with some state-wide measures beginning in July 2002. It also gives an independent medical panel the responsibility to audit the state's progress.

"Today, medical care in the CDC is a disaster waiting to happen," said Donald Specter, Director of the Prison Law Office. "This settlement will save lives and prevent serious injury by ensuring that all prisoners are treated according to minimally acceptable medical standards," states Specter.

"I am hopeful that this settlement will help prisoners so that no other mother has to suffer what I've been through, watching my son die from a curable illness," said Mary Kelly, whose son James died after medical staff at Wasco and Corcoran prisons waited three months before treating him for an aggressive form of tongue cancer.

The CDC policies and procedures will be designed to fix the problems alleged by the lawsuit, including the fact that the CDC routinely:

• relies on poorly trained and unsupervised Medical Technical Assistants (MTAs) with limited nursing training, to determine whether an inmate needs medical attention;
• fails to provide adequate nursing coverage during evenings and weekends;
• delays or fails to provide access to primary care physicians and specialists; and
• fails to treat prisoners with chronic diseases according to appropriate protocols.
  

The settlement occurred after two and a half years of difficult negotiations. State Senators John Burton and Richard Polanco were instrumental in persuading the Governor to negotiate rather than litigate. Attorney General Bill Lockyer, negotiating on behalf of the state, took a tough but practical and constructive approach to resolving these critical problems.

"Negotiation is almost always better than litigation," said Specter. In this case, the state will spend less money by settling this case than by litigating it. "In approving this deal, Governor Davis apparently recognized that conditions were terrible and made sure that badly needed money went to doctors, not lawyers," noted Specter.

The settlement will be presented to Judge Thelton Henderson, who will decide whether to approve it after notice to the class and a hearing. A date for the "fairness" hearing may be set at a status conference on February 4.

The Prison Law Office is a non-profit legal advocacy group located near San Quentin that is dedicated to providing free legal services to California prisoners. The Prison Law Office received assistance with the suit from two San Francisco law firms, Pillsbury Winthrop and McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen.