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Settlement Agreement Secures More Training for Communication with Hearing Impaired Persons

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO)  to expand officer training on communication with hearing impaired persons. The settlement is a result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU-NM in 2009 on behalf of a hearing impaired woman who was not provided a sign language interpreter during an encounter with BCSO deputies.

“Law enforcement work places officers in situations in which they must interact with many different kinds of people. Some of those people have special communications needs,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Board of County Commissioners for the County of Bernalillo agrees to take the following steps:

• The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department will distribute the United States Department of Justice Pamphlet entitled “Communicating With People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing” to all personnel assigned to the Sheriff’s Department. BCSO will also ensure that the county personnel assigned to the Emergency Communications Department are provided with information and procedures concerning the manner in which a certified Sign Language Interpreter may be contacted when necessary.
• Within one year, BCSO will provide refresher training to all supervisory and dispatch personnel concerning standard operating procedures for communicating with persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Within one year, BCSO will collaborate with a local advocacy group for the hearing impaired to obtain information and materials to incorporate into the training curriculum at the BCSO law enforcement academy.

The additional training provided to deputies and support staff will help ensure that BCSO remains in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and that the rights of the hearing impaired continue to be respected.

“We are extremely pleased that we are able to collaborate with the sheriff’s office to improve officer training,” said Simonson. “BCSO has reaffirmed their commitment to serving the hearing impaired community.”

ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorney George Bach of Bach & Garcia, LLC represented the plaintiff in this case.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 10, 2010

CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 Ext. 1003 or mmccoy@aclu-nm.org

LAS CRUCES, NM – The ACLU of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) and Disability Rights New Mexico (DRNM) settled their lawsuit against the Doña Ana County Detention Center (DACDC), securing essential mental health services for detainees. The settlement marks the end of a lawsuit brought as a class action by detainees who alleged that DACDC failed to provide adequate treatment for inmates with mental health disabilities. Under the terms of the settlement, DACDC will improve its intake screening process and provision of treatment, and it will modify segregation cell use as well as seclusion and restraint procedures to comply with constitutional standards and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We are very pleased that Doña Ana County has agreed to take these important steps towards providing detainees with adequate mental health care,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “These reforms will go a long way towards ensuring that detainees with mental disabilities are diagnosed and given proper care. We expect these changes to make the Doña Ana County Detention Center a safer and healthier facility.”

The settlement agreement mandates that DACDC implement standard screening procedures in its intake process in order to identify at the outset which detainees require treatment for mental disabilities. This will ensure that detainees receive immediate attention and avoid a deterioration of their condition that could put themselves, security staff and other detainees at risk. The agreement also requires that detainees with significant mental health disabilities be housed in a specialized mental health unit within the detention center and that they be supervised by corrections officers who have undergone special training regarding mental health issues.

A key achievement of the settlement was an assurance that placement in isolation cells — used inappropriately throughout the nation when dealing with detainees or inmates with mental disabilities — will not be used for detainees with mental disabilities unless all other less restrictive options have been exhausted. In addition, when physical restraint becomes necessary, corrections officers will only hold detainees until a trained medical professional is able to diagnose and administer treatment.

“Disability Rights New Mexico has been responding to concerns about inadequate mental health care in DACDC since 2004,” said Nancy Koenigsberg, DRNM Legal Director.  “DACDC is now required to maintain an adequate level of mental health services staffing.  It also has a continuum of care of mental health services in the facility, as well as provisions for transferring detainees to acute care out of the facility when clinically indicated.  These are very important services for detainees with mental disabilities. We also hope this may help with recidivism.”

A neutral expert in prison mental health care will be agreed upon by both parties and contracted to monitor and evaluate DACDC progress in the implementation of these reforms over the next two years. DRNM will oversee the monitoring process.

ACLU-NM Staff Attorney Brendan Egan, Disability Rights New Mexico Attorneys Nancy Koenigsberg and Tim Gardner, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorneys George Bach, Peter Cubra and Michael Lilley represented the plaintiffs in this case.

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Related Documents:

Bravo Settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Tuesday, July 14, 2009

CONTACT: Nancy Koenigsberg (505) 256-3100 of Disability Rights NM or Terri Beach (505)242-2228 for the City of Las Cruces

LAS CRUCES—The Las Cruces Police Department (LCPD) reached an agreement with civil rights groups to expand officer training to improve interactions with persons who have or appear to have mental disabilities.  In furtherance of its policy that LCPD has not, does not and will not target such individuals for questioning, intervention or arrest, the LCPD will, among many other efforts:

• Continue to develop LCPD’s specialized response system for persons who have or appear to have a mental illness. This system will continue to include LCPD Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) response officers specially trained in techniques for interventions with persons with, or who appear to have, mental disabilities.

• Expand commitment to provide all officers with tools and training needed to respond

appropriately to people with, or who appear to have, mental disabilities, including: 40 hours of New Mexico Department of Public Safety (NMDPS)-accredited instruction in crisis management to all cadets; 40 hours of NMDPS-accredited Crisis Intervention Training to those officers who volunteer to undergo the training and 40 hours of NMDPS-accredited instruction bi-annually to all officers, including eight hours of advanced in-service training regarding interactions with persons with, or who appear to have, mental illness.

• Expand commitment to provide officers with the training and authority to divert persons with, or who appear to have, a mental disability to available community mental health treatment resources as an alternative to arrest.

• Continue participation in monthly stakeholders’ meetings to discuss a strategic plan to identify, develop and implement a plan for Las Cruces and Doña Ana County to provide additional mental health resources that may be pooled and used to provide sufficient opportunities for diversion of persons with mental illness from the criminal justice system, including the development of sufficient 24/7 mental health services. Stakeholders to include county social services agencies and representatives from mental health providers, the judiciary, the district attorney’s office, the public defender’s office, individuals who use mental health services, family members of individuals who use mental health services, the New Mexico Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative, interested legislators, and other interested parties.

The agreement stems from a lawsuit filed by Disability Rights New Mexico formerly the Protection and Advocacy System), the ACLU of New Mexico, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and private attorneys Peter Cubra, Lisa Schatz-Vanz, and Mike Lilley. Also under the agreement, the City of Las Cruces will pay $150,000, part of which will be used to promote awareness of mental health issues. The City also agrees to track and make available training-related documentation.

The agreement received unanimous City Council approval on March 16, 2009 and is in the process of being finalized. Private attorneys Peter Cubra, Lisa Schatz-Vance and Mike Lilley worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Disability Rights New Mexico, and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law on the agreement.

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The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2008

CONTACT: (505) 266-5915 ext. 1003

ALBUQUERQUE— Yesterday, the New Mexico Court of Appeals struck down a city ordinance, affirming an earlier ruling, that would have empowered the city of Albuquerque to forcibly medicate people with mental illnesses. The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Law (AOT) conflicted with state laws that require patient consent before treatment.  This decision is a tremendous victory – upholding civil liberties in New Mexico.

Protection and Advocacy System, Inc., the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU), and The Law Offices of Peter Cubra initially sued the City in 2006, alleging that AOT subjects people with mental illness to potentially invasive treatment regimens based upon speculation that they might become dangerous.

“The Court of Appeals made clear that all people have the right to make decisions about their mental health care and that state law identifies the circumstances and creates the process by which people with mental illness may be forced to accept mental health treatment, both in and out of treatment facilities.  In addition, the Court affirms the right of people with mental illness, when they have capacity, to make advance directives for mental health treatment and have them honored,” said Nancy Koenigsberg, legal director of Protection and Advocacy System.

AOT, also known as Kendra’s Law, grants judges the authority to require people receiving mental health services to take psychiatric drugs, regularly undergo psychiatric treatment, or both. Failure to comply could result in the patient’s being committed to an institution for up to 72 hours.

“The decision was not based on some arcane turn of the law,” said Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico. “The court found that the city ordinance directly conflicted with the legislature’s desire to preserve some basic rights for people with mental illness and the way those protections were written into state law.  In the wake of this decision, the city should work with the legislature to channel resources into services for people with mental illness and abandon the tack of denying basic liberties.”

In October 2006, Second District Court judge Valerie Huling struck down the law writing that the ordinance was “inconsistent with the statutorily recognized right of a competent mentally ill person to refuse consent to treatment,” including psychotropic medications, electroshock therapy, and other invasive procedures.  She also ruled that the ordinance was in “direct conflict” with a state law that “broadly recognizes a right in competent individuals to make health care decisions.”

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The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

The Protection and Advocacy System (P&A) is a private, non-profit organization which protects and promotes the rights of people with disabilities in New Mexico. Founded in 1979 and authorized through federal law and an Executive Order of the Governor, P&A is the state’s only legal rights center for people with disabilities. Each year, after public hearings and comment, P&A sets priorities for the cases and disability problems it will address. Visit http://www.nmpanda.org/index2.htm

Related Documents:

Appeals Court Opinion (Vol 1)

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Appeals Court Opinion (Vol 2)

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Kendras Law Press Release (10-13-2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2007

CONTACTS: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898 or Nancy Koenigsberg, P&A (505) 256-3100

LAS CRUCES, NM—Civil rights groups sued the Dona Ana County Detention Center today for failure to provide adequate mental health services to inmates in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and constitutional prohibitions on “cruel and unusual punishment.”  The class action suit charges county officials with “deliberate indifference to [inmates’] serious mental health needs,” including failure to provide adequate mental health screening, monitoring, and care.  On behalf of plaintiffs, Protection and Advocacy System, Inc. (P&A), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, and private attorneys Michael Lilley of Las Cruces and Peter Cubra and Lisa Schatz-Vance of Albuquerque seek an effective program for mental health screening and treatment for all detainees and policy changes prohibiting the unnecessary incarceration of people with mental illness.

“Local officials have chosen to arrest and incarcerate people with serious mental disabilities instead of providing them with the treatment they require,” said P&A Executive Director, Jim Jackson.  “After incarcerating them, the county does not provide them with needed treatment at the jail, either.  We gave County officials multiple chances to fix the situation and they ignored our efforts.  We felt litigation was our only recourse.”

In December, 2006, a jail conditions expert, hired by P&A, inspected the jail and sent a memo to detention center Director Chris Barela recommending improvements in the jail’s program for mental health screening.  When their letter went ignored, P&A sent a second letter in June, 2007 requesting that specific problems regarding inadequate mental health care be corrected.  The letter followed an attempted suicide by a person held in the jail who is a named plaintiff in the civil rights suit.  In May and September 2007 P&A visited with jail officials and reiterated their concerns.

None of these contacts prompted significant improvements in mental health programming.

ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said, “By ignoring inmates’ mental health problems, the county has created a lose-lose situation.  The inmates suffer.  The jail suffers, because it faces possible suicides and violence within the facility.  And ultimately the citizens of Doña Ana county lose, because eventually some of these inmates will return to society in worse mental states than when they entered the jail.  It’s high time the situation was resolved for all concerned.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court.  In addition to policy changes, it seeks punitive and compensatory damages.

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Related Documents:

Dona Ana County Complaint

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