In Re Estevez

On February 14, 2006, in conjunction with a class action lawsuit filed several years earlier (Plata v. Schwarzenegger (N.D.Cal., No. C01-1351 TEH) (Plata)), the Honorable Thelton E. Henderson, Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, appointed a receiver (the Receiver) to “provide leadership and executive management of the California prison medical health care delivery system with the goals of restructuring day-to-day operations and developing, implementing, and validating a new, sustainable system that provides constitutionally adequate medical care to all class members as soon as practicable.” To this end, the Receiver was given the duty “to control, oversee, supervise, and direct all administrative, personnel, financial, accounting, contractual, legal, and other operational functions of the medical delivery component of’ the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). While developing “a detailed Plan of Action designed to effectuate the restructuring and development of a constitutionally adequate medical health care delivery system,” the Receiver was to “undertake immediate and/or short term measures…