A federal appeals court said Friday that California prison officials must promptly investigate and record all allegations of inmates who claim they are being deprived of disability accommodations.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2012 order by a lower court that required the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to investigate and record disabled inmates' grievances, such as providing beds for prisoners with limited mobility.
Previously, the department disregarded many of the complaints without documenting or investigating them.
Prison officials had appealed the lower court's ruling, arguing that they only needed to record and report claims they substantiated. Officials also argued they weren't required to investigate complaints that didn't allege staff misconduct or failed to name guards and workers allegedly responsible.
The ruling arises from a lawsuit initially filed in 1994 by disabled inmates who alleged their complaints about access were routinely ignored and that staff misconduct often went unpunished.
In 2007, a federal judge ordered prison officials to document, investigate and report the outcomes of disabled inmates' grievances.
Five years later, lawyers for the disabled prisoners complained to the judge that prison officials were wrongly interpreting the 2007 ruling and were continuing to ignore many grievances. In 2012, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken clarified the 2007 order to make it clear that prison officials were required to investigate all grievances and report the outcomes.
Prison officials changed their practices in 2012 to report all complaints, but they appealed the ruling. Prison officials argued that the requirement to document all grievances ran afoul of federal law, violated collective-bargaining agreements with workers and caused other problems.
On Friday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit disagreed and sided with the disabled inmates.
"The CDCR must hold its employees accountable,'' said Rebekah Evenson, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office, which represents inmates.
Department of Corrections spokesman Jeffrey Callison said officials are reviewing the decision to determine the agency's next step.
