Bravo v. Board of Commissioners of Dona Ana County
June 2008
Filed in federal court in New Mexico, Bravo challenged the lack of mental health services and release planning in the county jail and discriminatory arrest practices by local law enforcement officers.
J.A. v. Barbour
July 11, 2007
Troubled teenage girls in a state-run reform school in Mississippi suffered “horrendous” physical and sexual abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on July 11, 2007. The complaint asked the court to require the state to provide federally required mental health and rehabilitative treatment to girls confined in the Columbia Training School.
Nott v. George Washington University
October 2005
Jordan Nott was a straight-A sophomore at George Washington University in the fall of 2004 when he sought emergency psychiatric care for depression. When they learned of Nott’s hospitalization, university officials charged him with violating the school code of conduct, suspended him, evicted him from his dorm and threatened him with arrest for trespassing if he set foot on university property. The Bazelon Center filed a complaint on Nott's behalf in October 2005.
Pierce County v. Washington
February 2005
Caught in the vicious cycle that’s all too common across the U.S. today, hundreds of people with serious mental illnesses, have been committed to this hospital for short-term interventions, then discharged to a community with inadequate resources to meet their needs, only to lapse into crisis and be recommitted to the hospital or taken to jail—over and over again.
Missouri P&A and Scaletty v. Carnahan
October 8, 2004
This suit, originally filed as Prye v. Blunt, challenged Missouri's practice of denying the right to vote to people who are under court-ordered guardianship.
Jane Doe v. Hunter College
August 2004
This lawsuit was brought by a student who had been barred from her dormitory room at Hunter College because she was hospitalized after a suicide attempt.
William G. v. Pataki
October 20, 2003
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of parolees with serious mental illnesses and substance abuse problems who are languishing in jail, waiting for state-funded treatment services to become available. State officials told them that they could be released for treatment, but not enough treatment facilities existed to help them.