Case Discussions


Medical Grievances
In Estelle v. Gamble, the Supreme Court established the government's obligation to "provide medical care for those punished by incarceration." http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0429_0097_ZO.html
Estelle had to do with a work-site injury that later became a medical-neglect case. The Court concluded that prison conditions violate the 8th Amendment if they are "contrary to evolving standards of decency" or if the conditions "involve unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain."

Medical school applies Estelle v. Gamble (1976) to two areas: confidentiality and deliberate indifference. Lists cases through 2001.http://imh.utmb.edu/programs/LEICH/in-the-law

Medical care/mental illness
Ramos v. Lamm, 639 F.2d 559, 575 (10th Cir. 1980)
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14128247164979708365&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
Prisons' 8th Amendment obligation "to provide for prisoner's minimal life necessities includes a requirement to provide access to adequate medical care, including mental health care." See generally Brown v. Plata, 131 S. Ct. 1919 (2011)

Medical school applies Estelle v. Gamble (1976) to two areas:  confidentiality and deliberate indifference.  Lists cases through 2001.http://imh.utmb.edu/programs/LEICH/in-the-lawWilliam  Rold, Thirty Years after Estelle v Gamble:  A Legal Perspective.  14 Journal of Correctional Health Care, 11-20 (2009).  Estelle established three basic rights:  to access to care, to care that is ordered, and to professional medical judgment.
http://jcx.sagepub.com/content/14/1/11.short

Deliberate indifference
Farmer v. Brennan 511 U.S. 825 (1994)
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=U10394
Prison officials must have a "sufficiently culpable state of mind," namely that they were "deliberately indifferent" to inmates' health or safety. The prison officials "cannot be found to be liable under the 8th Amendment for denying inmates humane conditions of confinement unless the official knows of and disregards an excessive risk to inmate health or safety; the official must both be aware of facts from which the inferences could be drawn that a substantial risk of harm exists, and he must also draw the inference." at 837.

Disabled 
Prisoners do not give up their rights under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the Rehabilitation Act.
http://www.ada.gov/
http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm

Sexual Victimization and Rape
Report on Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails by the Review Panel on Prison Rape, edited by G.J. Mazza
Department of Justice, April 2012, 88 pp., available atojp.usdoj.gov/reviewpanel/pdfs/prea_finalreport_2012.pdf

Sexual Victimization Reported by Former State Prisoners, 2008
by Allen J. Beck and Candace Johnson
Bureau of Justice Statistics, May 2012, 51 pp., available atbjs.ofp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svrfsp08.pdf

National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape
Department of Justice, June 2012, 128 pp., available at
federalregister.gov/a/2012-12427

Case Law Summaries
SECTION 21: GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES, PRISONER
Detention and Corrections Caselaw Catalog    All Rights Reserved
CRS, Inc.  925 Johnson Drive, Gettysbur PA 17325  (717) 338-9100  www.correction.org
Section 21:  Grievance Procedures, CRS, Inc.  www.correction.org
1980 till 2003 various court decisions on detention and correction caselaw, summarized;  huge file accessed only as PDF through search engines like
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