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Abstract: 

In Dunn v. Dunn, WL 4169157, (M.D. Ala., 2016), a lawsuit is brought by Alabama prisoners and the state’s designated protection and advocacy (“P&A”) agency, and claims that the state’s correctional mental health care system is constitutionally inadequate; that ADOC unconstitutionally, involuntarily medicated prisoners suffering with mental illness and that the ADOC also has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The issue decided here, however, does not relate to the merits of the various claims but rather is a highly technical yet very significant to the litigants: it is access to Q.A.–self-evaluation material that plaintiffs view as most important to the merits of their claim. MHM, in turn, argues against disclosure because it will impede the self evaluation that is so crucial to providing decent mental health care. The number of lawyers and law firms listed as involved in this case fills almost a half page of the printed decision, a testament to how important the issue is viewed.

Keywords: Confidentiality of internal quality evaluations

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.