Events and Workshops
Mental Health Care for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities in Prisons and Jails
Save the Date!
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026
Time: 12:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. PDT
Location: San Francisco Law Library, 1145 Market Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco
Examining the intractable challenges of delivering legally adequate mental health care in carceral environments; gaining pre-release access to government benefits and services, and the transition back into society (reentry) where maintaining mental health care is critically important for positive outcomes; plus, what comes next with Medicaid cuts.
Register to attend the FREE seminar in person: https://19inperson.eventbrite.com
Register to attend the FREE seminar via Livestream: https://19virtual.eventbrite.com
You Tube live stream: https://youtube.com/live/Q1M5VcnfdpE?feature=share
Presentation One: “Delivering Legally Adequate Mental Health Care in Prisons and Jails”. Our panelists:
Professor Craig Haney, Ph.D., J.D., UC Santa Cruz: An American social psychologist and professor noted for his work on the study of capital punishment and the psychological impact of imprisonment and isolation.
In 1971, while a PhD candidate at Stanford, Haney collaborated with Professor Philip Zimbardo in creating and conducting what is known today as The Stanford Prison Experiment. Carried out in the basement of Jordan Hall, the experiment set out to examine the psychological effects of authority and powerlessness in a prison environment. It was scheduled to run for several weeks, but had to be terminated in its sixth day when student “prisoners” complained of cruel and dehumanizing abuse at the hands of student “guards”.
Haney has spent his entire career watching prison populations grow while probing the psychology of imprisonment and the causes of violent crime. He has interviewed thousands of prisoners, many on death row or in solitary confinement in the nation’s growing stable of “supermax” prisons.
Margot Mendelson, Esq., Prison Law Office: She joined the Prison Law Office (the PLO) in 2016, became Legal Director in 2022, and Executive Director in 2023.
She has worked on a wide range of issues related to conditions of confinement, access to health care, disability rights, use of force, and staff misconduct in California prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers. Her work has focused particularly on eradicating solitary confinement through litigation, legislative advocacy, and the provision of technical assistance. She has spoken and testified about the pervasiveness of solitary confinement and its devastating impact on people and communities.
Before joining the PLO, Margot worked at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld, where she practiced complex civil litigation in state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels, with a focus on civil rights matters. (NOTE: Prison Law Office and Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld have been involved in the Coleman case since the early 1990s.)
Brett Johnson, MD, Former Chief Psychiatrist, R.J. Donovan State Prison: Dr. Johnson’s areas of expertise include Correctional Psychiatry and Forensic Assessment, Suicide Risk Assessment and Prevention, and serving as a Federal Court Witness and providing testimony.
He worked as Chief Psychiatrist at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County from 2014-2017, where he directed all psychiatric services, including supervising psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in the inpatient unit. Prior to that, Dr. Johnson worked as Staff Psychiatrist at Donovan, within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), from 2012-2014. Here, he managed admissions, ongoing psychiatric care, and discharge planning for high-acuity patients requiring 24-hour monitored inpatient treatment.
Presently, in addition to his private practice, Dr. Johnson serves as a court-appointed psychiatric expert in two active federal court cases: Coleman v Newsom, and Mays et al v County of Sacramento. His work includes monitoring compliance with court-ordered remedies governing psychiatric care in California state prisons and Sacramento County jails.
Moderator: Corene Kendrick, Esq., Deputy Director, ACLU’s National Prison Project: An attorney who has litigated on behalf of incarcerated individuals with diagnosed mental disorders and continues in her current role to advocate for them across the nation.
On Oct. 1, 2026, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan rejected the state of Arizona’s request to block a federal court order turning over control of its health care program, including mental health care, to a Receiver. Corene commented: “Arizona has spent years fighting accountability at every turn while people in its prisons continue to suffer and die from preventable causes… Today’s decision clears the way for a receiver to do what the state has failed to do for more than a decade.”
Presentations Two: “Securing Services & Maintaining Treatment Upon Release from Prison and Reentry into
Society”. Our panelists:
Steven Bruce, Legal Director of People With Disabilities Foundation (PWDF), and Hilary Chen, Esq., Paralegal, PWDF, will discuss pre-release applications for SSI and Medicaid and/or SSDI and Medicare.
Anna Steiner, Associate Director of the Transitions Clinic Network, specializing in securing health care and related services for formerly incarcerated individuals will discuss a range of challenges, including upcoming changes to Medicaid rules due to HR1 (passed in July 2025).
Seminar will include opportunities to ask questions and participate in open, public discussion.
For questions or accommodation requests (at least 2 weeks in advance), contact: education@pwdf.org or call (415) 931-3070.
PWDF will be submitting applications for 3.0 hours of MCLE from the State Bar of California in Recognition & Elimination of Bias and for 3 units of continuing education for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the CA State Board of Behavioral Sciences, provided by NASW-CA.