Estate of Sisk v. Manzanares.U.S. District Court PRISONER SUICIDE Estate of Sisk v. Manzanares, 262 F.Supp.2d 1162 (D.Kan. 2002). The estate and survivors of a deceased prisoner brought a civil rights action against a county corrections department, alleging deliberate indifference to the prisoner's medical needs. The district court held that summary judgment was precluded by a fact issue as to whether corrections officers The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. were deliberately indifferent to the substantial risk that the inmate would commit suicide Verb 1. commit suicide - kill oneself; "the terminally ill patient committed suicide" kill - cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly; "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays" . The court held that the corrections officers were not entitled to qualified immunity Qualified immunity is a doctrine in United States law providing immunity from suit to government officials performing discretionary functions when their action did not violate clearly established law. Qualified immunity was created by the U.S. because they had a clearly established affirmative duty under the Eight Amendment at the time of the prisoner's suicide, to take reasonable measures to abate abate v. to do away with a problem, such as a public or private nuisance or some structure built contrary to public policy. This can include dikes which illegally direct water onto a neighbors property, high volume noise from a rock band or a factory, an improvement a known risk that the prisoner was suicidal. The court held that a supervisor was not deliberately indifferent, noting that the mere fact that a supervisor was not integrally involved with the day to day activities of his subordinates did not mean that he was deliberately indifferent to the need to provide adequate medical care to a suicidal inmate, even though the supervisor was subjectively aware of the prisoner's suicidal state. The supervisor was not aware that a corrections officer had ordered the prisoner to be given a regular blanket and placed in a hard lockdown Lockdown A specified period when an employee of a public company is barred from selling - and occasionally buying - their company's stock. Notes: These types of equity transaction restrictions can be imposed by securities regulators or underwriting firms if a company has cell, rather than a "rubber room," and the supervisor was not aware that the officer was not conducting required periodic checks. The court found that the comments of a captain did not indicate that he was deliberately indifferent to the risk that the prisoner would attempt to commit suicide. The captain allegedly said that suicide blankets "were too expensive" to order, that it would have been "just one less inmate we'd have to worry about," and that he would have to spend money to order those blankets "because one stupid mother fucker Noun 1. mother fucker - insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous dickhead, motherfucker, prick, asshole, bastard, son of a bitch, whoreson, cocksucker, SOB, shit had been successful in suicide." The prisoner had asphyxiated as·phyx·i·ate v. as·phyx·i·at·ed, as·phyx·i·at·ing, as·phyx·i·ates v.tr. To cause asphyxia in; smother. v.intr. To undergo asphyxia; suffocate. himself with a wool blanket. (Shawnee County Department of Corrections, Kansas) |
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