Case: CRIPA Investigation of Alameda County

On April 22, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division notified Alameda County, California, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, and Alameda Health System that there was reasonable cause to believe that the County’s use of institutional settings to provide mental health services to adults with mental health disabilities violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and that the conditions at Santa Rita Jail violated the Constitution and the ADA. Specifically, the Department’s investigation found that the County failed to provide services to qualified individuals with mental health disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs by unnecessarily institutionalizing them at John George Psychiatric Hospital and other psychiatric facilities. In addition, the Department concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that the Jail failed to provide constitutionally adequate mental health care to prisoners with serious mental health needs, including those at risk of suicide; that the Jail violated the constitutional rights of prisoners with serious mental illness through its prolonged use of restrictive housing; and that the Jail violated the ADA by denying prisoners with mental health disabilities access to services, programs, and activities because of their disabilities. 

In 2020, Disability Rights California (DRC), a nonprofit corporation, brought a lawsuit against the County over the same material facts. After the issuance of the DOJ's findings letter in April 2021, DRC and the DOJ began mediation with the County to negotiate a settlement. The parties ultimately reached an agreement on November 7, 2023, with the DOJ filing a motion to intervene in the ongoing DRC lawsuit and entering the proposed settlement agreement. The proposed agreement required the County to expand its crisis intervention services in a number of ways, including: 

• Maintaining a 24/7 crisis hotline,
• Providing mobile crisis response services,
• Providing crisis residential services,
• Increasing “full service partnerships” with community-based providers, including supporting constituents’ housing needs as necessary,
• Maintaining intensive case management capacity,
• Performing outreach and proactive engagement with at-risk individuals with serious mental illnesses,
• Maintaining contact with individuals after discharge from institutional facilities, and
• Continuing the county’s efforts to provide services in culturally responsive, person-centered ways.

The proposed agreement also required monitoring by an independent reviewer as well as enforcement provisions giving the district court continuing jurisdiction to enforce the terms of the settlement. The agreement was set to terminate either three years and three months after the effective date or upon the County’s demonstration of sustained substantial compliance. The agreement awarded attorneys’ fees of $1,800,000 to DRC. 

On January 31, 2024, the Court granted the motion to dismiss.