On March 13, 2001, attorneys of the Prison Law Office in California filed suit in the San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of California taxpayers, Drs. Diane Budd and William-Zakee McGill, to challenge the failure of the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to comply with the California Health and Safety Code § 1253.

On August 14, 2002 the San Francisco Superior Court (Judge A. James Robertson II) granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and ruled that the CDC was in violation of the California Health and Safety Code § 1253 by failing to license all Correctional Treatment Centers (CTCs), which provided treatment to California state inmates, with the Department of Health Services (DHS). The Court issued a permanent injunction which ordered the CDC to comply with the law and outlined certain corrective actions to be taken by the CDC. That injunction was modified by a stipulation of the parties on November 14, 2005.

Pursuant to an agreement reached by the parties in August of 2003, the CDC agreed to pay initial attorneys fees to plaintiffs in the amount of $185,000. The CDC agreed to pay additional fees for subsequent work.

Note that the Budd case is related to Plata v. Davis (PC-CA-18), a class-action civil rights case pending in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which challenged the operation of all aspects of California's prison health system. Attorneys from the Prison Law Office also represented the plaintiffs' in the Plata case.

As of the date of this summary, the Budd case was still active.

Dan Dalton - 03/08/2007


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