Click here for further information about all AELE Seminars.

---

 Search the Case Law Digest

     Some of the case digests do not have a link to the full opinion.

• Most Federal District Court opinions can be accessed via PACER. Registration required. Opinions are usually free; other documents are 10¢ per page.
• Access to cases linked to www.findlaw.com may require registration, which is free.

Medical Care

     Prior to incarceration, a prisoner had surgery for laryngeal cancer, leaving him with a tracheotomy tube. Other medical problems followed, involving ongoing memory issues, hypothyroidism, depression, smoking, and alcohol abuse. After his incarceration, medical personnel noted spikes in his blood pressure, an occasional low pulse, low oxygen saturation level, confusion, and anger. His condition worsened, with his symptoms suggesting acute renal failure. He then died after a short hospital stay. His mother filed a federal class action lawsuit, claiming that the failure to implement a departmental health care service directive requiring a plan for the management of chronic diseases constituted deliberate indifference to the prisoner's serious medical needs. Upholding summary judgment for the private medical provider that furnished medical services to prisoners at the state prison, a federal appeals court found that the claim failed because no evidence was shown that the failure to implement the directive led to a widespread practice of deliberate indifference against not only the inmate, but other inmates as well. As there was no evidence of either a series of incidents or a widespread practice of ignoring the needs of prisoners with chronic diseases, it could not be inferred that the failure to implement the directive was the result of deliberate indifference. Glisson v. Corr. Med. Servs, Inc., #15-1419, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 2666 (7th Cir.).

     A prisoner claimed that a nursing supervisor had been deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs by failing to take action in a timely manner when the artery comprising his dialysis access port ruptured. A federal appeals court upheld summary judgment for the defendant when the prisoner failed to present evidence that the alleged delay in treatment had a specific detrimental impact. Jackson v. Riebold, #14-2775, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 3180 (8th Cir.).

Medical Care: Mental Health

     A prisoner suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) claimed that prison wardens and supervisory physicians acted with deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs. The wardens were entitled to qualified immunity because there was no specific evidence that they were directly involved in or responsible for the allegedly inadequate treatment. Further, the evidence showed that the physicians were aware of the prisoner's medical needs and took steps to meet them. The prisoner also failed to show that he engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment or that his transfer to another facility or placement in segregation was retaliatory or violated due process. In fact, the transfer was to facilitate him receiving necessary psychiatric treatment. Saylor v. Randy Kohl, M.D., #14-3889, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 1459 (8th Cir.).

Prison Litigation Reform Act: Exhaustion of Remedies

     A motorist convicted of aggravated DUI causing a death was rendered a quadriplegic in the accident. He was taken into custody while hospitalized for treatment of pressure wounds. Under the county sheriff's policy, he was shackled to his hospital bed by one hand and one foot. He was later sent to the county jail and then to a county hospital, where the shackling continued. He claimed that this interfered with doctors' instructions that he move every two hours to help his sores heal, and that his recovery was stunted. The jail's grievance procedure, described in a handbook he never received, required him to file a written grievance within 15 days, which he never did. He did, however, complain orally, and after he was discharged from the hospital and entered the jail's general population, he had other inmates file grievances for him, since he could not write. He appealed from the denial of one such grievance. A federal appeals court overturned the dismissal of his lawsuit for excessive force and deliberate indifference for failure to exhaust available administrative remedies. He had no remedies available to him while hospitalized and uninformed of the grievance procedures, and he did properly exhaust his administrative remedies when finally able to do so. Hernandez v. Dart, #15-2493, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 3426 (7th Cir.).

     A prisoner claimed that he was severely beaten by a correctional officer and then placed in isolation and deprived of food after being treated for his injuries. He initiated a three step grievance process, but never received a response. He then submitted a notice of grievance form to the inspector of institutional services, but again received no response. He sent another communication about the status of his grievance, and again received no response. He then sued. A federal appeals court found that he was not required to proceed to the third stage of the grievance procedure after he received no reply at the first and second steps. The grievance procedure was silent about the need to proceed to the third step after a non-response to the second step. Troche v. Crabtree, #15-3258, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 3277, 2016 Fed. App. 49P (6th Cir.).

Prisoner Assault: By Officers

     A former inmate sued several correctional officers and prison officials claiming that officers used excessive force against him and then fabricated evidence, leading to his prosecution and prolonged detention. Malicious prosecution claims were improperly rejected on summary judgment. Actual malice could be inferred if the plaintiff, as he claimed, was prosecuted without probable cause. The officers' reports were improperly excluded from evidence when they were being offered to show that the defendants submitted false reports to justify their use of force and eny him a fair trial. Rentas v. Ruffin, #14-2475, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 4306 (2nd Cir.).

Prisoner Death/Injury

     A man intoxicated from PCP use was arrest for a disturbance and then transported a short distance to a jail, where he died from PCP toxicity. A federal appeals court upheld summary judgment for the defendants on claims under the Texas Wrongful Death statute, as the plaintiff, the decedent's mother, was unable to produce evidence that the alleged denial of medical care caused the decedent's death. Slade v. City of Marshall, 15-40517, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 2323 (5th Cir.).

     A man arrested for DUI was placed in a holding cell at a police station and died there. Summary judgment in favor of the defendants on claims for excessive force and denial of medical care was improper. From the evidence, a reasonable jury could have concluded that the injuries suffered by the arrestee were the result of excessive force in transporting him to the holding cell, or it could disbelieve that. A trial was required. Miranda-Rivera v. Toledo-Davila, #14-1535, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 2480 (1st Cir.).

Strip Search: Prisoners

****Editor's Case Alert****

     A class action lawsuit was filed against a county's policy of strip searching every prisoner admitted into the county jail, regardless of the nature of their crime or any suspicion that they possessed weapons or contraband. At the time, precedent in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals suggested that such a policy was unconstitutional. The county and its insurance carrier agreed to settle the lawsuit for a payment of $5,000 to the named plaintiff and $1,000 for each of over 800 other plaintiffs, along with attorneys' fees. The insurer claimed that the payout to each individual plaintiff should be subject to a separate deductible, so that the county had to pay the insurer 800 deductibles. The highest court in New York agreed, as the policy definition of an "occurrence" involved personal injuries to an individual person as a result of harmful conduct, and did not permit the grouping of multiple individuals who were harmed by the same condition. Each strip search was a separate and distinct occurrence subject to a separate deductible. The court rejected the county's argument that it should only pay a single deductible.  Selective Ins. Co. of Am. v. County of Rensselaer, 2016 NY Slip Op 01001, 2016 N.Y. Lexis 133.

Work/Education Programs

     A federal prisoner sued the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 2680, asserting that a prison official withheld wages he was owed for work done while incarcerated. A federal trial court erred in dismissing the lawsuit on the pleadings, as Bureau of Prisons regulations allowed no discretion to refuse to pay the wages. The prisoner claimed that the motive for the withholding was racial animus. Claims for discrimination, retaliation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress were properly rejected for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Douglas v. United States, #14-11444, 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 3665 (11th Cir.).

•Return to the Contents menu.

     Federal Prisons: Transforming Prisons, Restoring Lives: Final Recommendations of the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections (NCJ 249737), BJA-Sponsored, January 2016.

  Reference:

     • Abbreviations of Law Reports, laws and agencies used in our publications.

     • AELE's list of recently-noted jail and prisoner law resources.