California Prisons Must Comply With Mental Health Care Order

Mentally ill inmates in California must be given access to at least 20 hours of mental health treatment per week, following a federal appeals court’s decision Friday affirming the remedy for the state’s earlier failure to provide such individuals with proper care.

State officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), didn’t show that the trial court failed to comply with the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s requirements, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished decision. The law requires that the relief be narrowly drawn, extend no further than necessary to correct a violation of federal rights, ...