Politics
Biden's prisons chief tapped to fix lagging mental health care in California lockups
SACRAMENTO — Following through on intentions broadcast a year ago, a federal judge is putting control of California’s troubled inmate mental health programs into the hands of an outsider: President Biden’s former chief of prisons.
With inmate suicide rates at an all-time high, U.S. District Senior Judge Kimberly Mueller said her aim is to force changes in California’s prison mental health system, which a federal judge in 1995 deemed to be so poor as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
To do that, Mueller is naming a federal “receiver-nominee” to develop an oversight plan for psychiatric services for California’s prison population. Three prior candidates, for varying reasons, passed up the job.
Mueller’s pick to tackle the prisoner mental health care system is Colette Peters, who stepped down as Federal Bureau of Prisons director the day Donald Trump returned to the White House. The choice was announced Tuesday during a closed-door meeting with lawyers for inmates and Gov. Gavin Newsom, and published Wednesday as an order. Participants in the case said Peters has accepted a four-month position.
In that time, Mueller proposes that Peters work with opposing sides to come up with a plan of attack. Her full appointment as receiver would hinge on that plan. Lawyers for the state and for inmates have 10 days to comment on the judge’s proffer.
Newsom’s office would not immediately comment on what it described as “pending litigation.” State lawyers Tuesday told Mueller that while Peters was an acceptable choice, they reserved the right to contest California’s loss of control over a critical and expensive component of its sprawling incarceration system, a hearing participant said.
In that vein, a state lawyer in December argued that the “weighty decision” for a court takeover requires evidentiary hearings. At the time, Supervising Deputy Atty. Gen. Damon McClain said the need for a receiver was negated by improving conditions — namely the hiring of more social workers, just one of the positions for which the prison system has chronic shortfalls.
The state’s rosy depiction of improvements drew a rebuke Wednesday as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mueller’s July 2024 civil contempt findings against the state. The state argued it had “substantially complied” with orders to hire mental health staff “by taking all reasonable steps to comply.”
The appellate panel said that was untrue. It pointed to delays in responding to job applicants, and unaddressed grievances from staff frustrated with high workloads, lack of security protection, insufficient supplies and lousy workspaces “which often took the form of windowless converted cells in old and unheated prisons.”
The appellate opinion noted the state did not rebut this evidence or show why it could not address those problems.
Lawyers for inmates in the long-running class-action lawsuit described Mueller’s decision to name a receiver-nominee as a breakthrough. Plaintiff’s attorney Michael Bien said a receiver is empowered to make decisions that otherwise could be entangled in years of litigation. Dockets show lawyers for both sides have been wrangling for years over a policy to permit half of mental health staff to work remotely and deliver care by video and phone.
More than 34,000 inmates — more than a third of the California prison population — are considered to have some sort of serious mental disorder. According to court findings, not once in 35 years of litigation has California had enough mental health staff to provide an acceptable minimum level of care.
Court declarations cite a 2023 state analysis that found that of the 30 inmates who killed themselves in 2023, more than a fourth had received inadequate mental health care because of understaffing. One who hanged himself with a bedsheet had not had a mental health visit for more than seven months.
A special master appointed by the court to do fact-finding in the case said last year that a “bona fide mental health staffing emergency” persisted and in some prisons had gotten worse. The report concluded that only 38% of reviewed patients received adequate care.
The class-action lawsuit is named after a 1990 complaint filed by inmate Ralph Coleman, objecting to a lack of psychiatric services at Pelican Bay State Prison. It was expanded by prison rights attorneys to address what they allege are lapses in care that have resulted in inmate suicides, mentally ill prisoners being held naked in barren isolation cells and lengthy waiting lists for treatment.
In the course of the proceedings, prison rights attorneys have shown videotapes documenting the use of pepper spray, restraints, hoods and batons on mentally ill inmates in the throes of psychotic episodes.
Mueller, a former Sacramento City Council member who studied law at Stanford, was named to the Eastern District bench in 2010 by President Obama. She inherited the Coleman case from Judge Lawrence Karlton, who died in 2015 after retirement.
The Coleman case is one of two landmark class-action suits against California’s prison system that have been overseen by a three-judge panel that 10 years ago issued sweeping orders requiring California to reduce prison crowding.
The companion case found medical care in the prisons to be so poor as to cause preventable deaths, and resulted in appointment of its own federal receiver in 2006. Still present, that receiver has mandated increased funding for medical care and electronic health records, among other changes. Given the improvements, the court in 2015 began returning control of medical services to the state, one prison at a time. That process is nearly complete.
The Coleman case has so far failed to bring about similar improvements in inmate psychiatric care. As the prison population overall has decreased, the percentage of inmates in need of mental health services has risen.
Citing “ongoing constitutional violations,” Mueller in 2023 asked the U.S. attorney general to weigh in on California’s staffing for inmate mental health care and lagging efforts at suicide prevention.
“The state repeatedly has fallen short of its constitutional obligations in a number of critical areas: suicide prevention; the treatment of mentally ill inmates in administrative segregation; those inmates’ access to higher levels of care, including mental health crisis beds; and staffing,” she wrote in her 2023 petition.
Though the Ninth Circuit upheld Mueller’s 2024 contempt finding against California, the appellate panel asked the judge to show calculations for the associated monthly fines, which now exceed $197 million. The amount is intended to reflect the savings the state realizes from leaving prison mental health jobs unfilled.
In 2024, Mueller wrote that the contempt order and fines were having little impact.
“The court has exhausted virtually every mechanism for prodding defendants to finally achieve compliance,” Mueller wrote in a July 2024 order contemplating appointment of a receiver.
In the prison medical care case, the receiver crafted a turnaround plan for the state, ramped up physician salaries and negotiated with the administration for funding to build medical facilities. The medical receiver launched an electronic records system, tackled disease outbreaks including Valley Fever, and even monitored the health of prisoners staging a systemwide hunger strike.
It’s not yet clear what powers a mental health receiver would be given.
As head of the federal prison system under Biden from 2022 to early 2025, Peters confronted issues such as crumbling infrastructure, inadequate staffing and a scandal at a federal women’s prison in Alameda County so beset by allegations of sexual abuse that it was dubbed “the rape club.” She ordered that prison closed down.
Prior to that, she ran Oregon’s state prison system.
Construction workers unfurled a large printed tarp to cover scaffolding installed at the White House’s front entrance. Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, said President Trump had ordered the repairs after noticing damage to columns.
Politics
WATCH: Trump’s Energy chief reveals what escalating Iran tensions could mean for gas prices
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright is telling Americans not to be concerned about the possibility of another surge of sharp increases in gasoline prices as tensions with Iran have started to escalate once again.
Asked whether Americans should worry about higher prices at the pump and how the Trump administration is preparing to keep the economy stable if the conflict continues to worsen, Wright told Fox News Digital: “It has not been any good behavior from Iran that’s allowed oil to flow. It’s been the United States military.”
“That’s not changing,” he assured, speaking from the Great American State Fair on the National Mall this week.
US CLAWS BACK KEY CONCESSION TO IRAN AFTER FRESH ATTACKS ON COMMERCIAL SHIPS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
(Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
With Iran striking three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and Tuesday, Wright doubled down in urging citizens to not credit Iran for the U.S. military’s work to ensure oil shipments continue flowing through the strait.
“Look, the U.S. Military has been the key asset here,” he said. “They have assured the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz throughout. Not at the beginning of this conflict, but through the last six weeks.”
Wright said the administration is closely monitoring global oil supplies as the tentative ceasefire with Iran seemingly came to come to a halt, with President Donald Trump telling Secretary-General Mark Rutte the call for peace with Iran is “over” at the NATO Summit in Turkey on Wednesday.
But, he pointed to the continued shipping through the Strait as evidence that markets should remain stable.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN CEASEFIRE IS ‘OVER’ AFTER IRANIAN ATTACKS TRIGGER MASSIVE US RESPONSE
President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Tuesday, April 22. (AP/Alex Brandon)
“We’re of course constantly watching the supply of oil, the supply of refined products and what’s going on there,” Wright said. “And I think still all positive trends.”
Beyond geopolitical concerns, Wright also praised the new chain of discounted gas stations across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Freedom Fuel, which promises customers prices below the national average.
The Trump administration, though not involved with the network, has heavily endorsed the new chain and its 25 locations.
“We love it,” Wright said when asked about Freedom Fuel. “I mean, look, any mechanism we can to lower energy costs for Americans of all kinds, we’re all in on.”
“With Freedom Fuels, they’re just lowering it down to their wholesale price of gasoline,” Wright said. “So they’re not making any money selling gasoline, but they’ve got convenience stores. That’s how most gas stations make money.”
NEWSOM UNDER FIRE AS CALIFORNIA GAS TAX HIKE SENDS PUMP PRICES EVEN HIGHER
Gasoline costs are a known concern for many Americans, and amid surging prices there has been a considerable increase in those opting to purchase electric vehicles to save money long-term at the pump — with Tesla dominating the market for these types of models.
Wright argued one of the benefits to living in America is having the option to choose what type of vehicle you drive.
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“We just want people to buy what they would prefer,” he told Fox News Digital when asked his thoughts on increasing calls for support of the electrification of cars. “Consumer choice — you wanna buy an electric car, you wanna buy a gas powered car, diesel powered car, buy a big truck. That’s the choice.”
“That’s why you live in America. You get the choice of all those.”
In 2023, California regulators levied more than $100,000 in fines against the private operator of a federal immigration facility, kicking off a three-year battle over whether detainees who do work at the facilities should be considered employees.
The question went beyond semantics: If considered employees, the detainees would be subject to state worker protection laws.
A legal settlement announced this week now affirms that private immigrant detention facilities are subject to California’s workplace safety and health requirements.
“Every worker deserves a safe and healthy workplace and should be able to report workplace hazards without fear of retaliation,” said Denisse Gómez, spokesperson for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health or Cal/OSHA.
“Individuals who perform work in these facilities are entitled to workplace safety protections, and this settlement reinforces Cal/OSHA’s commitment to enforcing those protections and safeguarding vulnerable workers,” she added.
Under the settlement between California and the GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company, the company recently withdrew its legal challenges and agreed to pay more than $100,000 in the fines.
The GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Back in 2023, Cal/OSHA issued $104,510 in fines against the GEO Group. The agency had found six violations of state code by the company after detainees complained about a lack of protective equipment and proper training while cleaning the facility for $1 per day.
Detainees alleged they routinely wiped black mold off shower walls at the facility, saw black dust spew from air vents and used cleaning solutions that lacked instructions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biggest fine levied against the GEO Group was for failure to establish and maintain “effective written procedures to reduce employee risk of exposure to aerosol transmissible disease.”
Advocates viewed Cal/OSHA’S recognition of the detainees as workers as a victory that could pave the way for future labor rights fights at other detention centers in the state.
But the GEO Group appealed, arguing that detainees participating in ICE’s voluntary work program make their own schedules and aren’t employees, so hazard exposure couldn’t be “as a result of assigned duties,” as California law states. Plus, the company argued, there wasn’t enough evidence that detainees were exposed to any hazard.
Early last year, the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board rejected the GEO Group’s argument and found that detainees should be considered “affected employees.”
The GEO Group sued, but three days before a California Superior Court hearing in May, the company and Cal/OSHA reached the settlement.
Along with paying the fines, the GEO Group agreed to draft plans for avoiding aerosol transmissions at 12 secure and reentry facilities in California, including five detention centers that hold immigrants.
“GEO ensures detainees are afforded the necessary tools, equipment, and personal protective equipment … to safely and effectively perform any necessary tasks,” the settlement states.
Gómez said the settlement also leaves intact the appeals board’s ruling that civil immigration detainees who participate in work programs can participate in proceedings anonymously, “acknowledging the potential for retaliation when individuals raise workplace safety concerns.”
But the question of whether detainees are employees and deserve certain protections isn’t entirely resolved — at least not for the federal government.
Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released new standards for detention facilities across the country. The revised guidelines “emphasize that detainee volunteers participating in the voluntary work program are not considered facility and/or government employees” and thus not entitled to labor regulations.
Attorney Mariel Villarreal said the timing of the new detention standards made her question whether the GEO Group had asked ICE to specify in its standards that detainees are not workers in response to its battle with Cal/OSHA.
“To me, it’s a reaction to this very settlement,” she said. Villarreal works for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, which filed the original complaint on behalf of detainees who said they worked in unsafe conditions.
Villarreal pointed to a Washington Post report that GEO Group executives privately asked ICE to specify that detainees are not employees of the facilities where they work. Two top Trump administration officials, border czar Tom Homan and acting ICE director David Venturella, previously worked for the GEO Group.
New versions of ICE detention standards take effect as contracts are established or modified, so this year’s rules won’t immediately apply to every facility.
An ICE spokesperson did not comment about the settlement. The spokesperson, who did not provide their name in an emailed statement Wednesday, said the agency has begun transitioning detention facilities to meet the 2026 standards, “building on its longstanding commitment to safe, secure, and professional detention operations.”
“ICE has consistently implemented many of these best practices independently, reinforcing its role as the leader in detention operations,” the spokesperson added.
The GEO Group and other immigrant detention center operators have faced other legal battles over workers’ rights, including lawsuits in Washington, Colorado and California over the $1-per-day payment.
Villarreal said she’s confident that the Cal/OSHA settlement would continue to hold even if California facilities incorporated the new standards. But she said she believes the statements are an attempt by the GEO Group to “sidestep responsibility” and avoid the possibility of being fined under similar circumstances in other states.
“These statements in the new standards are a way for them to try and preserve profits as much as possible,” she said. “GEO and ICE are so intertwined at this point that they have the same motives.”
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