Eastern District of California Blog

EDCA Court Orders Task Force to Deal with COVID-19 Crisis in California Prisons

This Sacramento Bee story today reports that an employee at CSP-Sacramento prison and another at San Quentin have tested positive for COVID-19.  And here's what the Bee says about the new COVID-19 CDCR task force:

At a court hearing Friday, convened by telephone because courthouses have been closed, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller ordered the creation of a task force of inmate lawyers, CDCR officials and others to discuss how to address the rapidly evolving crisis.

The task force is to report back to the judge by next Friday.

Michael Bien, lead attorney for inmates requiring mental health care under the landmark Coleman case, said the issue is a “crisis.”

“The staff and the prisoners are all in a dangerous situation and CDCR needs to address the crisis,” Bien said. “I call it like a cruise ship without staterooms, and with a staff that goes on and off three times a day.

“This is a situation that needs to be addressed.”

The state already has made a number of policy changes in how inmates are being handled. Documents filed in federal court in Sacramento show all inmates received by the system are asked if they have a cough, a fever or difficulty breathing and have their temperature taken.

Any inmates who answer yes or have a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit are isolated. All others who answer no to the questions are quarantined for 14 days.

California Prison Whistleblower Testifies in EDCA Court

The whistleblower who accused California prison leaders last year of providing false and misleading data to a federal court on how the state handles inmate psychiatric care made his first public appearance Tuesday, standing behind his claims and saying corrections officials concocted “utter statistical garbage” in some cases.

Dr. Michael Golding, the chief psychiatrist at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation headquarters, testified in Sacramento federal court Tuesday about what he said were repeated instances to gin up phony data the state needed to present to U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to prove they were making progress on improving psychiatric care in the prisons.

Golding, who compiled and sent a scathing, 161-page report on psychiatric care in the prisons to the federally appointed receiver in October 2018, said there had never been anything secret about his views that corrections officials were trying to produce “extraordinarily misleading data” to come into compliance with court orders.

Sac Bee, 10/15/19

Cal Prison Whistleblower's Testimony May Be Postponed

California’s top prison psychiatrist may not have to testify Monday about allegations that he uncovered corrections officials providing misleading or inaccurate information to a federal judge, but he may be called later for a hearing on whether data provided by the state constitutes “fraud on the court.”

That was the latest twist Wednesday in an ongoing legal battle between lawyers for Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration and attorneys for prison inmates over whether corrections officials have been fudging data on how well they are providing psychiatric care to prisoners.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller held a telephone conference Wednesday morning to address efforts by state lawyers to stop Dr. Michael Golding from testifying at a hearing Monday, and she indicated she may be willing to postpone such an appearance.

Sac Bee, 10/17/18

 

Prison Psychiatry Chief Accuses California Of Misleading EDCA Court On Mental Health

The chief psychiatrist for California’s prison system is accusing state officials of providing inaccurate and misleading data to a federal court and to lawyers for prison inmates fighting to improve psychiatric care inside state prisons, according to court documents.

Dr. Michael Golding compiled a “lengthy, detailed report” that inmate attorneys say contains “serious allegations” that data reported to the court overseeing a long-running case involving medical and mental health care inside California prisons “is inaccurate and has been presented in a materially misleading way,” court documents say.

“Dr. Golding’s claims are very serious and, if true, have far reaching implications affecting almost every aspect of this case,” lawyers for the inmates said in documents filed in U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller’s court in Sacramento.

* * *

The judge also said she wanted to hear from Golding in testimony later this month before deciding how to proceed further over his allegations.

“If anything, Dr. Golding’s report suggests to me my need to hear fro him to assess the contents of that report,” she said.

Lawyers for the 30,000 prison inmates covered under the pending case say they discovered the existence of the 160-page secret report when lawyers for Gov. Jerry Brown and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra called them last Thursday to reveal its existence.

Court papers say the call was made after Golding sent the report to the court-appointed receiver overseeing reforms inside California prisons.

Sac Bee, 10/10/18

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article219790940.html#storylink=cpy

USP Atwater Inmate Death Investigated As A Homicide

According to this Merced Sun-Star story, USP Atwater inmate Juan Flores's death on July 28 is being investigated as a homicide.  The story also notes that authorities now believe that inmate Raul Ortega's death the following day [see my July 31 post] was a suicide. 

USP Atwater Inmate Death Under Investigation

A 25-year-old inmate at United States Penitentiary, Atwater, died late Sunday after he was found “unresponsive” in the prison and was rushed to a local hospital, prison staff reported.

A terse news release issued Monday afternoon provided few details in the death of Raul Ortega, described as a 25-year-old man serving an 18-year stretch in the federal prison for carjacking and firearm use.

Merced Sun-Star, 7/30/18

 

California Prisons Settle Mentally-Ill Inmate's Cell-Extraction Claim During Trial

With plaintiffs about to rest, the state prison system agreed before court began Tuesday to stop the trial and pay a mentally ill former inmate $950,000.

Jurors in the federal court trial in Sacramento said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made the right call to settle the case with Jermaine Padilla, the ex-prisoner.

Padilla’s videotaped cell extraction where prison officers repeatedly pepper sprayed him and then strapped him naked onto a gurney for 72 hours pretty much settled the matter in the jurors’ minds.

Sac Bee, 4/25/17.

First Inmate With Sex Reassignment Surgery Claims Women's Prison is Torture

The first U.S. inmate to have taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgery says she's been mistreated since being transferred to a California women's prison, where she now has a beard and mustache because officials have denied her a razor.

In a hand-written federal court filing, convicted killer Shiloh Heavenly Quine called her new housing at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla a "torture unit." She said she's unnecessarily isolated from other inmates and denied basic items.

 

State officials say she's being treated like other female inmates.

Sac Bee, 3/22/17

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/article140130878.html#storylink=cpy

 

Rehearing En Banc Granted in Nettles v. Grounds

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit granted en banc review in Nettles v. Grounds, No. 12-16935.  It will be my first en banc oral argument, now scheduled for March 22, 3:30 p.m, in San Francisco.  The issue involves whether federal judges have habeas jurisdiction over California prisoner actions challenging disciplinary violations that would affect the inmate's parole eligibility date, but that would not necessarily result in the inmate's earlier release from prison.  (The Ninth Circuit denied a judge's sua sponte en banc call with respect to the consolidated appellant, Matta Santos in No. 13-15050). Here's my Petition for Rehearing En Banc. [Updated 1/29/16]

EDCA Court Gives Plaintiff Leave To Amend Prison Pepper Spray Civil Rights Suit

State corrections officials have failed to rid themselves of a civil rights lawsuit over the death of a mentally ill inmate who breathed through a tube and was pepper-sprayed in his face at point blank range.

In a 29-page order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley dismissed most of the complaint, filed last year on behalf of Joseph Duran’s parents. He ruled that it failed in some respects to establish standing on the part of the parents to sue, and failed in other respects to provide a sufficient legal basis for the claims.

But rather than dismissing the suit permanently as was sought by the corrections officials, the judge allowed plaintiffs’ attorney Stewart Katz to cure the problems with a revised complaint by Dec. 28.

Sac Bee, 12/7/15