Formative case law and litigation

The presence of comprehensive correctional mental health treatment programs and services in any given jail or prison is often due to successful class action litigation. This chapter reviews the legal and constitutional background for correctional mental health care in the United States and addresses many of the critical ways these courts impact policy and care delivery on a daily basis. Several court decisions have shaped modern correctional mental health care delivery. Officials are obligated under the Eighth Amendment to provide convicted prisoners with adequate medical care, which extends to mental health treatment. Pre-trial detainees also have a right to adequate physical and mental health care under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution). Since the Supreme Court proclaimed that inmates have a constitutional right to adequate health care, much has been written about the controlling decisions, their implications and applications by courts, and their implementation in correctional systems. There are, however, discrete issues related to mental health care in corrections that patients and providers in prisons and jails contend with daily that may not yet be resolved as matters of constitutional law. Case law and litigation are driving innovation in standards of care and enhancing the quality of correctional mental health. These reforms are gaining acceptance as preferred and expected standards of correctional mental health care in jails and prisons, and may reflect the present day ‘evolving standard of decency,’ becoming touchstones of constitutionally adequate care across systems.