Attorneys for inmates say they are reviewing a federal judge’s ruling that extended a deadline for Alabama to increase prison staffing but also ordered other changes to the care of inmates with mental illnesses.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson on Monday issued a massive 600-page opinion regarding corrective measures for mental health care in state prisons. Thompson in 2017 ruled that mental health care in state prisons was so “horrendously inadequate” that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
“We are reviewing this ruling now but are gratified by the time and care Judge Thompson has put into this issue,” Larry Hannan, a spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote in an email.
Thompson chided the state for the lack of progress in addressing a shortage of correctional officers, an issue that he said was at the root of many of the problems. The federal judge extended a deadline from 2022 until 2025 for the state to adequately staff prisons but said the state should meet yearly benchmarks.
According to the opinion, attorneys representing inmates had asked Thompson to enforce his original 2022 deadline.
Thompson wrote he was adopting a “hybrid of the timelines proposed” by the two sides. He granted the state an extension but said yearly staffing benchmarks will be developed for the prison system to meet by the end of 2022, 2023, and 2024.
“However, when the amount of work (much of which should have been done years ago) ADOC must put into achieving adequate correctional staffing is considered, July 2025 is just around the corner. Time is of the essence. Every week and month is dear. The court, therefore, agrees with the plaintiffs that it is necessary to impose certain intermediate benchmarks against which ADOC’s progress may be assessed,” Thompson wrote.
