The state's budget crisis has forced an end to efforts to build special treatment units for mentally ill prison inmates, and damaged hopes of a settlement in a lawsuit brought against prisoner advocates.

Lawyers for Department of Correction officials, citing state finances, said negotiations to settle the civil rights suit by the Disability Law Center out of court have ended.

The suit filed in March 2007 claimed the practice of keeping some mentally ill patients in solitary confinement 23 hours a day was inhumane and leading to despair.

A year ago, both sides expressed optimism that the suit could be settled.

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The center has asked a federal judge in Boston to schedule a trial for January 2011, while the state wants it to start a year later.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe