Mr. Beard and Governor Brown have repeatedly argued publicly that medical and mental health care in state prisons have greatly improved. They have also maintained that California is being held to an unfair standard on overcrowding because many prisons around the country double-bunk inmates.
They have made those arguments in court, bringing in expert witnesses who have testified that the state is providing care deemed proper under the United States Constitution.
But the federal courts have found the arguments unconvincing. In a ruling on Thursday calling for an investigation of prison-based mental health facilities, a federal judge cited the “denial of basic necessities, including clean underwear,” along with doctor shortages and treatment delays. And in a footnote, the judge, Lawrence K. Karlton, chided the state for arguing for an end to federal oversight.
“Given the gravity of the evidence in this hearing,” Judge Karlton wrote in the footnote, a motion to terminate the case “takes on the character of a condition in which the defendants have simply divorced themselves from reality.”