Gates

Prison officials were held in contempt of court for failing to obey a consent decree. The issue in the ease is whether a consent decree requiring “appropriate” psychiatric care is specific enough to empower a court to hold prison officials in contempt for failure to do so. We conclude that it is not.

FACTS

Prisoners brought a class action challenging the constitutional adequacy of medical care at the California Medical Facility. The Facility is part of the California state prison system. It provides medical and psychiatric services for inmates from throughout the California state prison system. All members of the plaintiff class have been convicted of crimes, are being imprisoned for them, and have been sent to the Facility because of mental illness. The parties agreed to a consent decree. The provision of the decree at issue here required the facility to develop an outpatient psychiatric program which would provide “appropriate psychiatric evaluation and treatment” for prisoners. An interim program was to be in effect by June 30,1990 and to be fully operational by October 31, 1990.

*465 This appeal 2 arises from disagreements about whether the facility’s “outpatient” program…