On January 15, 1992, a group of prisoners incarcerated in the Alabama Department of Corrections brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama under 42 U.S.C. §1983 challenging the adequacy of mental health treatment provided by state prison officials. The plaintiffs, mentally ill prisoners, were represented by private counsel and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The case was assigned to Judge W. Harold Albritton III.

The plaintiffs were granted class certification on September 15, 1993. The class was defined as "[a]ll acutely and severely mentally ill inmates who are presently incarcerated at the Kilby Correctional Facility or who will be incarcerated there in the future." The case was later referred to mediation.

Judge Albritton approved a settlement agreement on September 28, 2000. The settlement agreement established a schedule for implementing various improvements for mental health treatment. James Quigley, Alabama DOC Settles Mental Health Class Action, Prison Legal News, July 2003, at 29. The improvements included comprehensive mental health policies, procedures and program manuals; bed space increases and mental health facility renovations, staff increases and training; and a requirement of National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) accreditation by April 2002. The agreement also appointed Jane Haddad to facilitate the implementation of the agreement and to oversee its compliance. The case was closed on June 27, 2001.

On August 19, 2002, a prisoner filed an objection to the settlement. But because the court gave final approval of the settlement on June 27, 2001, this objection was untimely. As such, the court overruled the objection.

On May 21, 2003, the parties jointly filed a modification to the settlement agreement, extending all deadlines by fifteen months with the settlement agreement terminating on January 1, 2005. That date has passed without any indication of non-compliance. The case is now closed.

Tom Madison - 03/27/2006
Elizabeth Heise - 10/07/2018


compress summary