Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog
Whether a person behind bars is a detainee or has already been convicted of a crime, they are constitutionally entitled to appropriate health care, including mental health care. Incarceration is incredibly stressful, and that stress can lead people to deep emotional depths, including suicidality. Too often, however, jail staff members do not do their jobs (such as skipping mandatory checks), and they miss clear signs of mental health distress. When a person behind bars harms themselves because the staff at their jail failed, that failure may represent a civil rights violation. If you suspect that has happened to a loved one, an experienced Oregon jail neglect lawyer can provide knowledgeable answers about your options.
A jail death to our south is one of the latest examples of these stresses and these kinds of jail staff failures.
A.A. was inside the Riverside County Jail in Southern California. According to the Desert Sun, he “had an extensive history of mental illness” and was housed in the jail’s mental health unit.
On Dec. 13, 2022, the man requested a visit from a mental health clinician and spoke about suicide, but no professional saw the man. Later that morning, according to the newspaper, the man began to cover his cell with paper. He stopped briefly when a deputy delivered his lunch but resumed once the deputy walked away.
Eventually, the man covered the camera in his cell. Then he hanged himself.
An investigation by the Desert Sun and the New York Times revealed many flaws. The jail staff failed to conduct at least one mandatory security check on the man. According to the paper, jail staff members “are required to conduct hourly safety checks and monitor cell cameras of detainees with mental illnesses.”
In A.A.’s circumstance, video footage showed him starting the window-covering process at 11:17 am. The deputy with the lunch cart arrived at 11:44. The man covered his camera at 11:46. No one followed up until a routine check at 12:32 pm. By then, A.A. had already hanged himself.
The Sun and Times’ report found that jail workers “failed at times to adequately monitor detainees and intervene when they attempted suicide.” They also “did not always enforce rules prohibiting detainees with mental illnesses from blocking cell windows and cameras.”
Jail inmates and detainees are 3-4 times more likely to take their own lives than members of the general population. When the workers at a jail are placed on notice (which means they knew or reasonably should have known) of an inmate/detainee’s suicidality, they should (but too often do not) take action.
Even if the inmate/detainee has not already exhibited signs of mental health troubles, jail workers are required to keep watch over them. The frequency of these checks varies based on the person’s circumstances. If an adult detainee/inmate in jail (as opposed to prison) has no issues, the minimum frequency is one hour. Adults with medical problems should be checked at least every 30 minutes. For adults who have displayed suicidal ideation, the minimum is every 15 minutes. Adults who are acutely suicidal should receive constant supervision.
How These People in Custody Get Overlooked
The reasons for these failures are numerous and varied. One significant one is inadequate coordination. The jail may outsource responsibility for mental health care services to a private third-party company (like Wellpath or Yescare) or a local mental health agency. Major communication lapses frequently occur between deputies at the jail and the teams at county mental health or the third-party vendor. Each entity may have its own forms, and no entity has access to the information of the other entities. It is important to remember, though, that the county/jail has the ultimate obligation to ensure the incarcerated person receives appropriate health care.
If your loved one has died inside a jail and you believe that neglect played a role in that death, you owe it to yourself to talk to a knowledgeable lawyer. These incidents are often legally complex and require diligent and skillful investigation into the facts. The Oregon jail neglect attorneys at Kaplan Law LLC have extensive experience performing these investigations, advising families, and litigating these cases when appropriate. To learn more, call (503) 226-3844 today or contact us online to schedule your free consultation.
