Gray v. Tunica County, Mississippi.

U.S. District Court

PRISONER SUICIDE

Gray v. Tunica County, Mississippi, 279 F.Supp.2d 789 (N.D.Miss. 2003). The estate of a jail inmate and his relatives brought a suit against a county and a jailer, alleging federal civil rights claims and state law claims. The inmate had committed suicide in a jail holding cell. The district court granted summary judgment, in part, for the defendants. The court held that the county had no civil rights liability for jail conditions or policies related to the suicide of the pretrial detainee who was placed in a new "lunacy" cell under a suicide watch. the detainee apparently managed to strangle himself with a ripped-off piece of his jail jumpsuit. The court found that the holding cell was new and safe and that the method of suicide was unforeseeable. The court noted that it was doubtful that the detainee could have been helped, even if a jailer had entered the cell immediately upon noticing that the detainee had removed his jumpsuit and was lying nude in a peculiar position. According to the court, the jail policies involving intermittent checks were reasonably related to the legitimate purpose of protecting inmates from harm. The jailer had decided to finish feeding other inmates before he returned to check on the welfare of the detainee in the holding cell. The detainee had been checked about an hour after being placed in the new holding cell, and the jailer returned 30 minutes later to discover the detainee unconscious in the cell. (Tunica County Jail, Mississippi)