Davis Polk & Wardwell, in partnership with The Legal Aid Society, Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, and Disability Advocates Inc, provided approximately 30,000 hours of volunteer attorney time and 10,000 hours of paralegal time to the successful litigation of Disability Advocates, Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health and Department of Correctional Services. In recognition of this pro bono commitment by Davis Polk & Wardwell, Senior Counsel, James W.B. Benkard, has been awarded the New York State Bar Association 2007 President's Pro Bono Service Award for the First Judicial District.

The lawsuit alleged that prisoners throughout the New York State prison system did not receive necessary mental health services, resulting in punishing them with lengthy stays in 23 hour per day lockdown (isolated confinement in Special Housing Units or keeplock), where they suffered severe psychiatric deterioration, including acts of self-mutilation and even suicide. The settlement requires that prisoners with serious mental illness confined in Special Housing Units ("SHU") will now receive a minimum of 2 hours per day of out of cell treatment and that prisoners in the Residential Mental Health Units receive as many as 4 hours, in addition to an hour of recreation.

The settlement also provides:

* Multiple reviews of disciplinary sentences for prisoners with mental illness for the purpose of removing prisoners with serious mental illness from isolated confinement.
* Residential programs for 405 prisoners with serious mental illness.
* 215 Transitional Intermediate Care Program beds for prisoners with mental illness in general population.
* 90 additional Intermediate Care Program beds for prisoners with mental illness who cannot tolerate the prison general population.
* A 100 bed Residential Mental Health Unit ("RMHU") which will provide 4 hours per day of out-of-cell programming for prisoners with serious mental illness who would otherwise be in SHU.
* The above are in addition to 310 residential mental health programs beds which the state instituted after the litigation commenced.
* An additional 20 psychiatric hospital beds for prisoners in need of acute care.
* Universal and improved mental health screening of all prisoners at admission to prison.
* Improved suicide prevention assessments, now required upon admission to SHU.
* Improved treatment and conditions for prisoners in psychiatric crisis in observation cells.
* Limits on the use of observation cells, where prisoners in psychiatric crisis are deprived of most possessions and clothing.
* Limits on punishment of prisoners with mental illness who hurt themselves because of their illness.
* Limits on the use of the punitive 'restricted diet' (a loaf made from bread and cabbage) as a punishment for misconduct by prisoners with serious mental illness.
* Elimination of isolated confinement of prisoners with serious mental illness in cells that have solid steel doors that severely isolate and restrict communication.

The new state budget provides monies to carry out the State's commitments in the settlement agreement. These funds approximate over $50 million in capital construction costs; $2 million for additional OMH staffing for the 2007-2008 year to grow to $9 million when construction is complete; and nearly $2 million for additional DOCS staffing for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.