U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled today that the Alabama Department of Corrections fails to adequately evaluate the mental health of inmates isolated in segregation cells, causing a risk of serious harm, and that the ADOC is “deliberately indifferent” to that failure.
Thompson issued a 66-page opinion and order three days after attorneys for inmates said the suicide rate in Alabama prisons had reached a crisis level, with 13 suicides in 14 months.
Thompson ordered lawyers for the inmates and for the ADOC to confer and submit a joint report with suggestions on how to fix the failure to monitor isolated inmates. The judge has also scheduled a hearing on suicide prevention for April 19.
Thompson’s order today comes in a lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates in 2014 by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy program alleging inadequate health care, mental health care and accommodations for inmates with disabilities.
