Events and Workshops
Mental Health Care for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities in Prisons and Jails
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: CLOSED
Register to attend the FREE seminar via Livestream: CLOSED
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: NOTE: Due to a family emergency, Professor Haney was unable to attend the seminar. His presentation was given by Corene Kendrick.
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.”
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.
Michael Bien, Esq., Co-founding Partner Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP.
Michael Bien filed the original Coleman lawsuit in 1990 on behalf of Ralph Coleman, who alleged the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) failure to diagnose and treat his mental illness violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The case became a class action, and in 1994 a federal court found that incarcerated people with serious mental disorders in California’s prisons went years without adequate mental health care.
Bien was lead counsel in three federal court class action trials in 2013 exposing cruel and unusual mistreatment of persons with mental illness in three critical areas – denial of psychiatric hospital services, use-of-force, including pepper spray, and overuse of solitary confinement. The trials brought into public view abuses that have gone on for years in California prisons. RBGG’s clients prevailed in all three trials, and major reforms are now underway.
Presentations Two: “Securing Services & Maintaining Treatment Upon Release from Prison and Reentry Into Society”. Our panelists:
Steven Bruce, Esq., 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.
Steven is licensed to practice law in California and Florida. He worked for the Social Security Administration as a Senior Staff Attorney. In 2000, he founded People With Disabilities Foundation. Steven has worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Offices for Civil Rights, was a supervisor in the Government Benefits Unit for Legal Aid, and was an Assistant Public Defender.
He is a member of the California and Florida Bars; the District Courts of the Northern, Eastern and Central Districts of California and the Southern District of Florida; the Ninth Cir. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Hilary, prior to joining PWDF, worked in water policy, supporting local utilities and communities by identifying opportunities for accelerated investment in green water infrastructure. She also has civil litigation experience. Across her work, Hilary is committed to advancing equity, expanding access to essential resources and services, and uplifting historically marginalized or underserved communities.
Anna Steiner, MPH, MSW, 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).
She joined TCN in 2016 and spent the first five years working in prison reentry at San Quentin State Prison, helping incarcerated individuals connect with care giving services at release. Prior to becoming Associate Director in 2023, she was TCN’s National Program Manager and led in its rapid expansion from 13 to 50 primary care health systems nationwide.
The seminar included opportunities to ask questions and participate in open, public discussion.
For questions, contact: education@pwdf.org or call (415) 931-3070.
An application for 3.0 hours of MCLE from the State Bar of California in Recognition & Elimination of Bias participatory credit for people attending the event in person is pending approval. (Apparently, there are bureaucratic barriers to applying for continuing education for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs provided by NASW-CA, so we are unable to offer this credit.)