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CDCR Held in Contempt, Fined $112 Million 
in Longstanding Litigation Over Mental Health Care

Loaded on Aug. 1, 2025 published in Prison Legal News August, 2025, page 12
Filed under: Staffing, Mental Health, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides. Location: California.

Coleman v. Newsom, a class-action case challenging inadequate mental health care for California state prisoners, has been ongoing for the past 35 years. Over the course of that litigation, a bench trial was held where a federal district court “found overwhelming evidence of significant and chronic understaffing …

 

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More from this issue:

  1. Now Under Federal Receivership, 
New York City’s Rikers Island Jails Still Have 
No Plan to Improve, No Firm Date to Close, by Chuck Sharman
  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Watchdog Calls Out D.C. for Dragging Feet 
on Construction of New Jail, by Chuck Sharman
  4. $75,000 for Transgender Maryland Prisoner Raped by Guard, by Chuck Sharman
  5. Texas Social Workers Challenge Blanket Denial of State Occupational License Based on Youthful Assault Convictions, by Matthew Clarke
  6. CDCR Held in Contempt, Fined $112 Million 
in Longstanding Litigation Over Mental Health Care
  7. Two Exonerated Illinois Prisoners Win Settlements 
Totaling $14.5 Million, by Chuck Sharman
  8. California Prisoners Sue Gynecologist for Sexual Abuse, by Casey Bastian
  9. Oklahoma Prisoner’s Execution Was Expedited 
by the Trump Administration
  10. $2.6 Million Paid for Detoxing Washington Jail Detainee Allowed 
to Leap to His Death, Additional NaphCare Payout Undisclosed, by Chuck Sharman
  11. Multiple Prisoner Suits Accuse Guards of Violence 
at Virginia BOP Lockup, by Chuck Sharman
  12. Sixth Circuit Holds Dismissal Not Automatic When Plaintiff Simultaneously Files Same Claims in State Court, by Anthony Accurso
  13. Alabama DOC Attorneys Reprimanded for 
Filing AI-Written Briefs in Prisoner’s Suit, by Chuck Sharman
  14. Nebraska Considers Curbing Double-Bunking 
in Restrictive Housing
  15. FCC Backtracks on 2024 Order to Cut 
Prison Phone and Video Rates by Half
  16. $1.2 Million for New York Prisoner Waterboarded by Guards, by Chuck Sharman
  17. Former Maine Prison Guard Arrested 
and Detained by ICE Agents
  18. $15 Million Settlement Reached in San Diego Jail Detainee’s Untreated Withdrawal Death, by Chuck Sharman
  19. $6.75 Million Settlement Reached in Suit Accusing 
Massachusetts Guards of Retaliatory Assaults on Prisoners, by Chuck Sharman
  20. Missouri Prison Nurse Sentenced 
to 12 Years for Poisoning Husband
  21. Fifth Circuit Greenlights Federal Takeover of Mississippi Jail, by David Reutter
  22. $325,000 Paid to Former Wisconsin Prisoner Whose Cancer Biopsy Was Delayed by Previously Disciplined Doctor, by Chuck Sharman
  23. SCOTUS Partially Overturns Pavey, Holds PLRA Exhaustion 
Dispute Must Go to Jury Even If Intertwined with 
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  24. Texas Lawmakers Restrict Bail and Raise Criminal Penalties, 
Punt on Prison and Jail Conditions, by Chuck Sharman
  25. PLN Publisher Wins Settlement Records from Centurion 
in Florida Prisoner’s Wrongful Death, by Chuck Sharman
  26. Prison Gerrymandering 
Alive and Well in Oklahoma, by Chuck Sharman
  27. After Judge’s Letter, at Least 22 Former FCI Dublin Prisoners Granted Compassionate Release, by Matthew Clarke
  28. Ninth Circuit Revives Prisoner’s Claim Based on Guard’s 
Thwarting of Administrative Remedies, by David Reutter
  29. $815,000 Settlement in Nevada Class-Action Suit 
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  30. Review: “Reforming the Shadow Carceral State”
  31. Fourth Circuit Revives Wrongful Conviction Claim of Exonerated Maryland Prisoner, State Pays Him $3.1 Million, by Chuck Sharman
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  35. $3,800 Paid to Ohio Prisoner for Denied Records Request, by Chuck Sharman
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  39. Suit Filed Over Fatal Beating of New York Prisoner 
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  42. Former California Prison Guard 
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  43. Sixth Circuit Upholds $45 Million Verdict for 
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  45. SCOTUS Clamps Down on Bivens Extension to Prisoner 
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  46. Ninth Circuit Agrees That Former Guantanamo Detainee 
Lacks Grounds to Sue for Waterboarding, by David Reutter
  47. $1.875 Million Partial Settlement for Colorado Detainee’s 
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  48. $95,000 Paid to Nevada Prisoner Denied 
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  49. Life-Sentenced California Prisoner Cannot be Convicted Under Both §§ 4500 and 4501
  50. On Remand, Eleventh Circuit Clarifies, Affirms Grant 
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  52. California Attorney Disbarred for Deceiving 
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  53. HRDC Wins Consent Decree, $350,000 in Jail Censorship Suit 
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  54. DOJ Inspects BOP Food Service Operations, 
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  55. Tennessee Legislature Passes Bill to Penalize Private Prisons 
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  57. Nebraska Supreme Court Clarifies Award of Time Served 
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  58. Third Circuit Upholds Award of $265,000 to Prisoner 
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  62. Sixth Circuit Order Sealing Records 
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  63. Former Oregon Prison Guard Sergeant Sentenced 
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  64. News in Brief

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