RBGG represents more than 34,000 people incarcerated in California’s prison system with serious mental illness, in the class action Coleman v. Newsom, 2:90-cv-00520-KJM-DB (E.D. Cal, filed April 23, 1990).
An article by Don Thompson of KFF Health News published in the Sacramento Bee on May 30, 2025, Bonuses among latest moves to improve California’s prison mental health system, outlines how almost $200 million in fines the State of California incurred for failing to comply with court orders relating to staffing levels of mental health providers, will in part be used to pay bonuses to hire and retain mental health workers and help fill the gaps in mental health care in the prisons that have existed for decades.
“I think it’s important to point out that this is the money that the state saved by not hiring people for these positions,” said RBGG’s Michael Bien on the article, adding, “And we know that not hiring caused suffering, harm, and even death.”
The article notes, “In what Bien characterized as a bid to avoid ill will, all prison mental health workers will benefit from the new expenditures, with current employees and new hires each receiving one-time $10,000 bonuses. All corrections department employees, not just mental health workers, are also eligible for $5,000 bonuses for referrals leading to new hires in understaffed areas. The state estimates that the bonuses will cost about $44 million, although the projection does not include the referral bonuses or bonuses paid to new employees hired during the year.”
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article307563836.html#storylink=cpy