“On August 7, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. granted final approval of a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against Shasta County and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department over systemic ADA discrimination [against prisoners] in the Shasta County Jail in Redding, California.As part of the settlement agreement, the court has ordered the County to comply with a number of actions, including providing comprehensive training to all current prison staff regarding the rights of inmates with mobility disabilities and the jail’s policies regarding prisoner treatment, as well as conducting routine assessment and reporting on the jail’s compliance with the ADA. Additionally, the Shasta County Jail must make structural changes to remove or remediate all structural barriers within three years and provide full access to all programs in the jail to persons with mobility disabilities within 90 days.

Prison stairs; image by ActiveSteve, via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0, no changes.

‘No one should have to endure the dehumanizing treatment that disabled prisoners in Shasta County have suffered,’ said Taylor Gooch of Keker, Van Nest & Peters, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. ‘This settlement goes a long way to restore these individuals’ legally protected rights.’‘We believe this settlement is the most comprehensive and protective settlement of its type in the California prison and jail system,’ Steven P. Ragland, lead counsel for the inmates’ class, said. ‘We hope it will serve as a model for prison reform.’The plaintiffs are represented by Steven P. Ragland, Taylor Gooch and Franco Muzzio of Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP; Maronel Barajas, Anna Rivera, and Mallory Sepler-King of the Disability Rights Legal Center; and Jon Atabek of Atabek & Associate.The case is Jewett et. al. vs. Shasta County Sheriff’s Department et. al., Case No. 2:13-cv-0882 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California.”Click the link to view the settlement agreement.