A county in the San Francisco Bay Area will spend $250 million to increase staffing and improve health care at its jails after a lawsuit alleged inmates with physical and mental problems were being neglected.

Contra Costa Count agreed to a settlement of the suit Thursday that calls for spending the money over five years, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

During negotiations over the case, experts testified that the jails weren’t giving proper treatment to potentially suicidal inmates An attorney with the Prison Law Office, which filed the suit, says the changes will save “countless lives.”