Opinion
Civil Action 2:14cv601-MHT (WO)
07-19-2023
EDWARD BRAGGS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. JOHN HAMM, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, et al., Defendants.
ORDER AS TO THE QUARTERLY MENTAL-HEALTH STAFFING REPORTS
MYRON H. THOMPSON, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
For the past several years, the defendants have been filing quarterly mental-health staffing reports on March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1 of each year. See State's Quarterly Mental Health Staffing Report (Doc. 3971-1). Throughout this case, both in on-the-record conversations and the parties' filings, the adequacy of these quarterly reports--specifically regarding how to measure overall mental-health staffing compliance--has consistently been at issue. See Joint Report Addressing the Parties Disputes as to the Mental-Health Staffing Reports (Doc. 3892); also compare Pls.' Report on What the Most Recent Mental Health Staffing Reports Reflect (Doc. 3709) at 4 n.6, with Defs.' Response to Pls.' Report Regarding Quarterly Mental-Health Staffing Reports (Doc. 3749) at 2-3. At present, there is no indication that these disputes will resolve in the near future. Though, the parties, in conjunction with the EMT, should continue trying to reach a mutually agreeable resolution. The court will also continue looking into the issue. In the meantime, however, it is imperative that the court understand what, in the parties' views, each mental-health staffing report reflects, regardless of the present disputes over them. To achieve this, the parties will be required, as outlined below, to jointly submit a mental-health-staffing “trends” report following each quarterly mental-health staffing report.
Accordingly, it is ORDERED that, within seven days of the filing of each new quarterly mental-health-staffing report, the parties are to file a joint “mental-health-staffing trends” report that: (1) summarizes the data in the new quarterly report; (2) states the net increase or decrease in total mental-health staffing relative to the prior report in both raw numbers and as a percentage; (3) states whether the report reflects a rate of progression that places the ADOC on track to meet the forthcoming June 1, 2025, mental-health-staffing deadline; (4) states any other retrospective trends and forward-looking prognosis the report indicates; and (5) brings to the court's attention any other relevant information revealed by the report. This order applies to the mental-health staffing reports under the current formatting and all, if any, future formatting.