[0] U.S. District Court: SUICIDE.

Smith v. Blue 67 F.Supp.2d 686 (S.D.Tex. 1999). The parents of a juvenile who committed suicide while in custody at a juvenile detention center operated by a county sued the county and facility supervisors under [section] 1983. The district court declined to dismiss the case, finding that the parents stated a [section] 1983 claim against the county for violating the juvenile's Fourteenth Amendment right to medical protection against his own suicidal intentions, and that the parents stated a wrongful death claim. The court found that the facility supervisors' practice of pre-entering cell inspection records and then avoiding making actual visual checks on juveniles was so pervasive that is constituted a policy or custom and was the result of inadequate training. The court found that a wrongful death claim was stated by the allegation that the juvenile's death was caused by a bedsheet left unsupervised in his cell. At the time of his detention the juvenile had been diagnosed as suffering from attention deficit disorder and this was confirmed in evaluations done after his admission. During his four-month stay the juvenile allegedly threatened suicide and physically harmed himself on several occasions. When his behavior worsened to the point that he refused to come out of his cell and began hiding under his bed, he was placed in solitary confinement as punishment for refusing to follow directions. While in solitary confinement he was allowed to keep several personal items, including a towel, T-shirts, athletic shoes with laces, and a bed sheet. One evening he was found dead, hanged from a loose sprinkler head with a bedsheet. Written cell inspection reports indicated that staff had visually checked on the juvenile every 15 minutes until the discovery of his body, but a subsequent investigation revealed that the records had been altered after the body was discovered. The original records stated that the juvenile had been checked every fifteen minutes before his death and for four hours after his death. Staff admitted that it was routine practice to complete inspection reports beforehand and to fail to make the required visual checks. Investigators determined that the juvenile had been dead for an hour before his body was discovered, confirming that the 15-minute checks had not been conducted. (Delta 3 Boot Camp, Harris County, Texas)