Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-1233.pdf
Page Number: 11

Cite as:  563 U. S. ____ (2011) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

No.  09–416,  p.  56a  (hereinafter  Juris.  App.).    In  2006, 
then-Governor  Schwarzenegger  declared  a  state  of  emer-
gency in the prisons, as “ ‘immediate action is necessary to
prevent  death  and  harm  caused  by  California’s  severe 
prison  overcrowding.’ ”  Id.,  at  61a.    The  consequences  of 
overcrowding  identified  by  the  Governor  include  “ ‘in-
creased,  substantial  risk  for  transmission  of  infectious 
illness’ ”  and  a  suicide  rate  “ ‘approaching  an  average  of 
one per week.’ ”  Ibid. 

Prisoners  in  California  with  serious  mental  illness  do 
not receive minimal, adequate care.  Because of a shortage 
of  treatment  beds,  suicidal  inmates  may  be  held  for  pro-
longed  periods  in  telephone-booth  sized  cages  without 
toilets.  See  Appendix  C,  infra.  A  psychiatric  expert  re-
ported  observing  an  inmate  who  had  been  held  in  such  a
cage  for  nearly  24  hours,  standing  in  a  pool  of  his  own
urine, unresponsive and nearly catatonic.  Prison officials 
explained  they  had  “ ‘no  place  to  put  him.’ ”    App.  593. 
—————— 

At trial, current and former California prison officials also testified to
the  degree  of  overcrowding.    Jeanne  Woodford,  who  recently  adminis-
tered  California’s  prison  system,  stated  that  “ ‘[o]vercrowding  in  the
[California  Department  of  Corrections  and  Rehabilitation  (CDCR)]  is 
extreme,  its  effects  are  pervasive  and  it  is  preventing  the  Department
from providing adequate mental and medical health care to prisoners.’ ” 
Juris.  App.  84a.    Matthew  Cate,  the  head  of  the  California  prison
system,  stated  that  “ ‘overpopulation  makes  everything  we  do  more 
difficult.’ ”    Ibid.    And  Robin  Dezember,  chief  deputy  secretary  of  Cor-
rectional Healthcare Services, stated that “we are terribly overcrowded
in our prison system” and “overcrowding has negative effects on every-
body in the prison system.”  Tr. 853, 856. 

Experts  from  outside  California  offered  similar  assessments.    Doyle 
Wayne  Scott,  the  former  head  of  corrections  in  Texas,  described  con-
ditions  in  California’s  prisons  as  “appalling,”  “inhumane,”  and  “unac-
ceptable”  and  stated  that  “[i]n  more  than  35  years  of  prison  work
experience,  I  have  never  seen  anything  like  it.”    App.  1337.    Joseph
Lehman,  the  former  head  of  correctional  systems  in  Washington,
Maine,  and  Pennsylvania,  concluded  that  “[t]here  is  no  question  that
California’s  prisons  are  overcrowded”  and  that  “this  is  an  emergency
situation; it calls for drastic and immediate action.”  Id., at 1312.