Nearly two years ago, the ACLU of Alaska filed a lawsuit to protect the due process rights of incarcerated people who are subject to the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) egregious and unlawful involuntary medication policy.
Our client, Mark Andrews, has been incarcerated since 2001. While incarcerated, Mr. Andrews has been held down, handcuffed, and forcibly injected with psychotropic medication that can have long-lasting detrimental side effects. All of this was done without the protection of his fundamental right to due process.
All incarcerated people in Alaska are subject to the same unlawful process.
When deciding to forcibly medicate someone, DOC deploys a biased process where their medical providers review each other’s recommendations. This results in rubber-stamping requests to medicate. This review takes place at a “hearing” where Mr. Andrews is not given any of the evidence in advance. Sometimes, he is not even told the reason that DOC thinks he should be medicated. And his lawyers are never allowed to attend.
At these “hearings”, the DOC medical providers do not discuss the side effects of the medication. This is especially problematic because, since the forcible injections began, Andrews has reported significant gastrointestinal and other health issues that are known to be caused by psychotropics.
We’re in court today to argue that this internal DOC process is unconstitutional. Like every other Alaskan, Mr. Andrews must have a judge decide whether he can be medicated against his will. Putting this life-or-death decision in front of a judge would allow Mr. Andrews to have an attorney represent him, for side effects to be considered, and for basic due process to be observed.
We have already had some major successes in this case. We were granted an Independent Medical Examination (IME) to have Mr. Andrews assessed by doctors outside DOC. That means Mr. Andrews is the first incarcerated plaintiff to get an IME that they requested. We also made sure Mr. Andrews had the right to counsel at the IME --- a similarly novel ruling in Alaska. And, most importantly, we got Mr. Andrews off the forced medication for now. But DOC could begin anew their sham process to forcibly medicate him at any moment, so we are still fighting in court.
Now, we are headed to court to argue the case before Judge Dani Crosby. Our legal team will make the case that Mr. Andrews has a fundamental right to not be forcibly medicated under the Alaska Constitution, and that the government can only interfere with this right if they abide by the strictest procedures --- including providing a judicial hearing and an attorney.
While we don’t expect a decision to be made immediately, we are hopeful that this lawsuit will overhaul the use of involuntary medication by the Department of Corrections, ensure that incarcerated people are not unnecessarily forced to take harmful and mind-altering medication, and create positive case law about the rights of incarcerated Alaskans.
Stay tuned for more developments in this case. Learn more about the ACLU of Alaska’s Prison Project here.
