The lawyers at Arnold & Porter and the D.C. Prisoners’ Rights Project had to consider carefully which prisoners at the ADX could serve as representatives for the subclass of severely mentally ill inmates. Not only did those prisoners have to give their consent to participate in the suit and share their stories, they had to do so while suffering the symptoms of the severe psychiatric problems for which they were seeking treatment.
Two of the five plaintiffs named in the original complaint have backed out of the suit, including the initial named plaintiff, Michael Bacote. Bacote wrote the first letter to prisoners’ rights lawyer Deborah Golden that set Arnold & Porter’s investigation in motion. Although Bacote still keeps in touch with Golden, she says he has become convinced that Aro and his colleagues are surreptitiously working for the government. “I hope Michael gets the care he so desperately needs,” she says.
