A federal judge ruled that the state failed to comply with an agreement to improve conditions for thousands of prisoners. On Wednesday, the judge ruled that the mentally ill inmates have had their constitutional rights violated by the Illinois Department of Corrections. During an oral decision, which was delivered during a telephone conference with lawyers for the state and for mentally ill inmates, the US District Court Judge ruled that the department violated 5 major areas in the 2016 settlement agreement. This was an agreement that was reached in a lawsuit filed on behalf of about 11,000 mentally ill inmates. The judge said during that written ruling that a preliminary injunction will be filed before a May 22nd hearing, to consider remedies on the state’s violations. The 5 areas of deficiency are treatment planning, segregation, crisis care, psychotropic medication and general quality of mental health care. A court-appointed monitor testified back in December that a critical shortage of psychiatrists has created huge backlogs of psychiatric appointments for inmates.