Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-1233.pdf
Page Number: 15.0

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

9 

Opinion of the Court 

Master in Coleman filed a report stating that, after years
of  slow  improvement,  the  state  of  mental  health  care 
in  California’s  prisons  was  deteriorating.  App.  489.  The 
Special  Master  ascribed  this  change  to  increased  over-
crowding.    The  rise  in  population  had  led  to  greater
demand  for  care,  and  existing  programming  space  and 
staffing levels were inadequate to keep pace.  Prisons had 
retained more mental health staff, but the “growth of the 
resource  [had]  not  matched  the  rise  in  demand.”    Id.,  at 
482.  At  the  very  time  the  need  for  space  was  rising,  the 
need to house the expanding population had also caused a 
“reduction of programming space now occupied by inmate
bunks.”  Id., at 479.  The State was “facing a four to five-
year  gap  in  the  availability  of  sufficient  beds  to  meet  the 
treatment  needs  of  many  inmates/patients.”    Id.,  at  481. 
“[I]ncreasing  numbers  of  truly  psychotic  inmate/patients
are trapped in [lower levels of treatment] that cannot meet 
their  needs.”  Ibid.  The  Special  Master  concluded  that 
many  early  “achievements  have  succumbed  to  the  inexo-
rably  rising  tide  of  population,  leaving  behind  growing 
frustration and despair.”  Id., at 489. 

C 

The second action, Plata v. Brown, involves the class of 
state prisoners with serious medical conditions.  After this 
action  commenced  in  2001,  the  State  conceded  that  defi-
ciencies  in  prison  medical  care  violated  prisoners’  Eighth
Amendment  rights.  The  State  stipulated  to  a  remedial 
injunction.  The  State  failed  to  comply  with  that  injunc-
tion, and in 2005 the court appointed a Receiver to oversee
remedial  efforts.  The  court  found  that  “the  California 
prison  medical  care  system  is  broken  beyond  repair,”
resulting  in  an  “unconscionable  degree  of  suffering  and 
death.”  App. 917.  The court found: “[I]t is an uncontested 
fact  that,  on  average,  an  inmate  in  one  of  California’s 
prisons  needlessly  dies  every  six  to  seven  days  due  to