Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said today new prison construction and increased staffing will likely be components in a proposed settlement of a federal lawsuit over the state's prisons.

"The mediation continues to be ongoing," Ivey said. "We're making progress."

Ivey said the Department of Corrections is gathering information about the needed staffing levels for corrections officers and for mental health care providers.

In June, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that mental health care in Alabama prisons is "horrendously inadequate."

The ruling came in one phase of a case filed on behalf of inmates in 2014 by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program.

Thompson ordered the state to enter mediation with the plaintiffs to find a remedy. The judge set a Sept. 5 deadline for a report that will be filed under seal.

By Oct. 2, the state must file its proposed remedial plan with an explanation of how the plan would be adequate, Thompson ordered.

Ivey said new prison construction would be part of the state's proposal. She said specifics on how prisons would be built have not been determined.

"Everything is still being worked through and we're developing those answers," Ivey said. "This is not a quick fix for sure, but we've got to come forward and will come forward with a recommendation for what we're going to do to fix the problem, by Alabama folks."

The Legislature has extensively debated plans to build new prisons the last two years but has not reached an agreement.

Alabama's prisons have been filled beyond capacity and short on staff for years.

As of May, the prisons held 21,953 inmates in facilities designed for 13,318, an occupancy ratio of 165 percent.

That number has been declining, though. It's down about 2,000 inmates from May 2016. The Legislature passed sentencing guidelines that took effect in 2013 and additional criminal justice reforms in 2015.

But Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn has said violence has increased in the prisons as staffing levels have fallen.

Thompson, in his ruling on mental health care, wrote that understaffing and overcrowding are "overarching issues" in the prisons.

Maria Morris, managing attorney for the SPLC, said Thompson has scheduled a pretrial hearing in his chambers for Sept. 8. Morris said she expects the judge to assess whether the state and the plaintiffs are making sufficient progress in their mediation.