Cagle v. Sutherland.

U.S. Appeals Court

CELL CHECKS

ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE

STAFFING LEVELS

Cagle v. Sutherland, 334 F.3d 980 (11th Cir. 2003). The personal representative of the estate of a pretrial detainee who hung himself in his cell brought a [section] 1983 action, alleging that officials failed to prevent his suicide. The district court denied summary judgment in favor of the defendants and they appealed. The appeals court vacated and remanded. The appeals court held that the county's violation of a consent decree that arose out of a voluntary settlement of a prior jail conditions lawsuit, did not establish a violation of the pretrial detainee's constitutional rights actionable under [section] 1983. The consent decree required the county to provide a second nighttime jailer to staff the jail during the hours that the detainee committed suicide, but the court noted that the prior lawsuit was not concerned with the risk of prisoner suicides. According to the court, the county's failure to fund the second jailer did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference to the strong likelihood that a suicide would result. The court also found no deliberate indifference on the part of the jailer who waited for one hour and forty-six minutes after his last cell check, even though the detainee had expressly threatened suicide. The court noted that the jailer was aware that the detainee's belt, shoelaces and the contents of his pockets had been confiscated, the cell had been stripped of implements that might assist suicide, and the jailer regularly observed the detainee through a closed circuit monitor that viewed the majority of the cell. The detainee was able to commit suicide by tearing the elastic band from his underwear, tying it around his neck, and hanging himself from the top bunk. (Winston County Jail, Alabama)