Articles Posted in Civil Rights

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The death of 27-year-old S.B. was the tragic final chapter of a man allowed to “fall through the cracks” repeatedly. The man’s situation included many institutional failures, but one of the biggest was the inadequate mental health care he allegedly received while behind bars in Douglas County. Inmates and detainees are constitutionally entitled to appropriate health care while incarcerated, and a failure to receive that care can represent a violation of that person’s civil rights. If you have lost a loved one in this way or have questions about appropriate standards of care and jail inmates and detainees, be sure you get the reliable information you need by talking to an experienced Oregon jail neglect lawyer.

S.B. died seven weeks after he entered the Roseburg jail. On February 28, 2024, law enforcement officers encountered the man at a coffee shop repeatedly “asking customers if they wanted to ‘box’ and acting strangely.” A day later, police found the man wandering in traffic on a Douglas County highway. Despite the man’s mental health crisis, police arrested him for disorderly conduct.

When the man entered the Roseburg jail, he weighed 235 pounds. By the time deputies entered the man’s cell on April 18 to transport him to his court-ordered psychiatric treatment, he was down to 139 pounds, having lost more than 40% of his body weight.

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Last week, a 31-year-old woman died inside Multnomah County’s jail in Downtown Portland. The seven-month stint without a jail death was an improvement from 2023 when 10 inmates/detainees died inside the county’s lockups. Even so, too many people are dying behind bars due to preventable reasons. Sometimes it is a lack of mental illness care, a failure to limit access to dangerous drugs, or untreated (or improperly treated) alcohol or drug withdrawal. When these deaths are the result of a failure to provide reasonably appropriate medical care and treatment, they may represent a violation of that person’s constitutional rights. For reliable answers about civil actions based on this type of constitutional rights violation, turn to an Oregon civil rights lawyer with experience handling cases involving jail deaths.

Although the reports that the news media have published so far provide only sparse details, the basic factual pattern of the most recent death is a very familiar one. Multnomah County Sheriff’s officers arrested the woman on Tuesday, July 22, charging her with criminal mischief and reckless burning. According to a Willamette Week report, her decade-long history of “run-ins with police” were “often the result of poverty or mental illness.”

Less than 72 hours after her July 22 arrest, the woman was found unresponsive inside her jail cell. Paramedics failed to revive her.

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Ten people died while in custody at the Multnomah County Jail in 2022 and 2023, as compared to zero deaths in the preceding two years. Too many times, preventable deaths – whether here locally or elsewhere – are the result of protocols not being followed or people otherwise not doing their jobs. When that kind of failure leads to an inmate or detainee’s death, that could represent a federal civil rights violation. For the families of those inmates/detainees, restorative justice may be available by pursuing legal action, aided by representation from an experienced Oregon civil rights lawyer.

One of those detainees who died in the Multnomah County Jail in 2022 was Stephen Murphy, who was awaiting trial on federal drug charges. At the time a fellow inmate found him unresponsive, the man was suffering from severe internal bleeding. A coroner’s autopsy discovered that the detainee had a tumor in his liver that had burst.

The sheriff’s department initially listed Murphy’s cause of death as “natural causes,” but later changed it to “overdose.” Willamette Week reported that Murphy had 7.4 ng/ml of fentanyl in his blood when he died. (The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Chief Medical Examiner considers 3 ng/ml or more enough to list overdose as a patient’s cause of death, in the absence of any other diseases.)

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Insufficient medical treatment inside detention facilities is a significant issue around the country, including in Oregon’s jails and prisons. One major problem, a byproduct of the nationwide opioid epidemic, is an ever-increasing number of people entering lockup amid addiction. Whether as a result of a lack of diligence or a lack of knowledge, too many staff at lockups are failing to meet the needs of these detainees/inmates, and inmate deaths often are the result. The failure to treat conditions promptly and properly may constitute a violation of an inmate/detainee’s civil rights, in which case swiftly consulting an Oregon civil rights lawyer is an essential move.

Another area of substantial concern is mental health. Not only are substance withdrawal and mental health both major areas of concern, but they are also frequently interconnected. Medical researchers, including those with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the British Medical Association, have published significant research reporting on the link between the sudden disuse of opioids and suicide, as well as suicide as a symptom of alcohol withdrawal.

A case from Deschutes County focuses on those issues and, allegedly, a jail’s failure to provide appropriate treatment to an inmate with them.

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Many locations are reporting enormous spikes in jail deaths. Locally, Multnomah County has reported seven deaths this year, which is more than the previous five years combined. Too many jail deaths involve inmates who needed essential (and often immediate) medical care but didn’t get it. A federal jail death case to our south (San Bernardino County, California) serves as an important reminder that, when this happens, it’s not simply wrong, it’s also potentially a violation of federal civil rights laws.

The detainee, C.P., was a college student with schizophrenia. After she became pregnant in late 2020, the woman discontinued taking her prescription antipsychotic medication. By March 2021, she had become unstable and attacked her father and a neighbor. The father called 911 and, according to a local news report, warned the responding police officers that his daughter was pregnant and schizophrenic.

The father told a reporter that a deputy assured him that the county jail where the officer took the woman specialized in “people with mental health conditions.” Within 24 hours, despite placement without clothes in a padded cell, the woman had managed to injure herself. After a trip to the hospital, she was returned to jail. The police told the father that his daughter would be placed in a “safe room” where “she could not harm herself.” The woman was not restrained inside her cell.

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Many locations are reporting enormous spikes in jail deaths. Locally, Multnomah County has reported seven deaths this year, which is more than the previous five years combined. Too many jail deaths involve inmates who needed essential (and often immediate) medical care but didn’t get it. A federal jail death case to our south (San Bernardino County, California) serves as an important reminder that, when this happens, it’s not simply wrong, it’s also potentially a violation of federal civil rights laws.

The detainee, C.P., was a college student with schizophrenia. After she became pregnant in late 2020, the woman discontinued taking her prescription antipsychotic medication. By March 2021, she had become unstable and attacked her father and a neighbor. The father called 911 and, according to a local news report, warned the responding police officers that his daughter was pregnant and schizophrenic.

The father told a reporter that a deputy assured him that the county jail specialized in “people with mental health conditions.” Within 24 hours, the woman had managed to injure herself. After a trip to the hospital, she was returned to jail. The police told the father that his daughter would be placed in a “safe room” where “she could not harm herself.”

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Two different reports of two recent jail deaths (from two different publications) reveal a pair of incidents with some striking things in common. These deaths, and the timelines laid out in the accompanying news reports, show how often inmates receive questionable medical care. These reports are a stark reminder that substandard medical care remains a serious (and sometimes lethal) problem in Oregon’s correctional facilities. If you’ve lost a loved one in circumstances like this, the legal system allows you to pursue a constitutional claim. These cases are often complex and challenging, so getting advice and answers from an experienced Oregon jail medical neglect lawyer is well worth your while.

This kind of neglect can take many forms. Sometimes, it can include things as simple as a failure to do proper inmate wellness checks on a sufficiently frequent basis.

A jail death to our south recently received coverage from the Corvallis Gazette-Times, which laid out a detailed timeline of the inmate’s symptoms, and the actions (or lack thereof) undertaken by those responsible for her wellbeing.

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Incarcerated people ingesting contraband (such as drugs) or other dangerous items is a legitimate problem. Like every other problem that correction workers face, there’s a right way and a wrong way to address it. Sometimes, the use of a so-called “dry cell” represents the wrong way, and the misuse of this type of confinement can be damaging or even lethal. If a loved one has died while incarcerated in a “dry cell,” then you should contact an Oregon civil rights lawyer to learn more about your legal situation and options.

“Dry cells” are cells where the inmate lacks any plumbing facilities. There is no shower, no sink, and the toilet has no water. The idea is that the contraband or dangerous item will eventually pass through the inmate’s body and prison officials can recover it after it does so.

Properly used, these cells can potentially serve some benefit. Improperly used, these cells can cause lasting physical damage… including death. That is what, according to one deceased inmate’s family, may have happened recently at Two Rivers Correctional Institute.

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WellPath, the Tennessee company with a trail of numerous civil actions regarding inmates who died while in its care, appears not to be slowed by the cloud of that litigation. Earlier this month, Oregon Public Radio reported that WellPath and Clark County had agreed to a three-year contract for services at the county jail and the youth detention facility in Vancouver. Whether inmate care is provided by an outside entity or by a local government, whenever those providing that care put dollars over people, harm (and, too often, death) will inevitably result. If your family has been touched by this kind of loss due to provider negligence, don’t delay in reaching out to an experienced jail medical neglect lawyer to discuss what options your family has.

According to the OPB report, the agreement called for WellPath to receive $5.87 million in the first year of the deal, with increases of 4-8% in each of the next two years.

WellPath provides care in jails and prisons in 36 states, including seven in Oregon. Currently, the company is facing four separate civil lawsuits in Oregon alleging that it was liable for the wrongful death of inmates under its care.

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Each January, Americans pause to reflect upon the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On multiple occasions, Dr. King counseled new college graduates and other audiences that “the time is always right to do what is right.” At Kaplan Law LLC we strive to do exactly that as we pursue justice on behalf of our clients.

And, as of this month, we’ve been doing it for 20 years.

During those two decades, we have represented a lot of victims and their families in catastrophic injury (and death) cases, including high-profile ones like Jed Hawk Myers. Myers died in the Yamhill County Jail after his pleas for medical attention — 19 times across five hours, to be exact — were ignored.

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