Formative case law and litigation

Abstract The presence of comprehensive carceral 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 persons with adequate medical care, which extends to mental health treatment. Pretrial 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 incarcerated persons 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 carceral systems. There are, however, discrete issues related to mental health care in carceral settings 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 innovations in standards of care and enhancing the quality of carceral mental health. These reforms are gaining acceptance as preferred and expected standards of carceral mental health care in jails and prisons and reflect the present-day “evolving standard of decency,” becoming touchstones of constitutionally adequate health care across carceral systems.