Medical Development Internatio v. California Department of Corre

I. Background

In June 2005, the U.S. District Court for the Northern Dis- trict of California established a receivership to take control of the delivery of medical services to all California state prison- ers confined by CDCR. Plata v. Schwarzenegger, No. C01- 1351 TEH, 2005 WL 2932253, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 3, 2005). The court explained that “[i]t is clear . . . that [an] unconscio- nable degree of suffering and death is sure to continue if the system is not dramatically overhauled,” id., and determined that the only solution to the systemic failures that had led to these problems was “the drastic but necessary remedy of a Receivership.” Id. at *1; see also id. at *23-33.

The court charged the Receiver with “provid[ing] leader- ship and executive management” to CDCR, “with the goals of restructuring day-to-day operations and developing, imple- menting, and validating a new, sustainable system.” In partic- ular, it assigned the Receiver the “duty to control, oversee, MEDICAL DEVELOPMENT v. CDCR 14725 supervise, and direct all administrative, personnel, financial, accounting, contractual, legal, and other operational functions of the medical delivery component of…