23-f-1 Remedies for State Prisoners

• Library: A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (2020 Edition)

23-F-1. Remedies for State Prisoners

(a) 42 U.S.C. §1983 Actions

Section 1983 is a federal statute that allows you to bring a lawsuit when your federal constitutional rights have been violated. When persons acting under state authority (for example, prison guards, prison doctors, and prison administrators) violate your right to adequate medical care, you may use Section 1983 to bring a lawsuit in federal court. For a discussion of Section 1983 actions, see Chapter 16 of the JLM, "Using 42 U.S.C. §1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to Obtain Relief from Violations of Federal Law."

(b) Tort Actions

As discussed in Part B of this Chapter, the federal constitutional standard established by Wilson and Farmer cannot be proven by claiming only negligence.²¹⁸ If the facts of your case are not enough to prove a constitutional violation, but only show negligence, you may want to consider bringing a tort action against state officials instead of a constitutional claim. See Chapter 17 of the JLM, "The State's Duty to Protect You and Your Property: Tort Actions," to learn how to do so.

To succeed on a negligence claim you must prove three things:

(1) "Duty of Care"-that the defendants had a duty of care towards you;

(2) "Breach of Duty"-that the defendants failed to meet that duty; and

(3) "Injury"-that you were injured as a result of that failure.²¹⁹

There are several ways to prove that the prison has a duty of care towards you. First, as discussed above, Estelle v. Gamble held that prison officials have a duty to provide adequate medical care.²²⁰ Second, a state statute may declare, or require, a prison's duty of care. Many states have statutes that require prison officials to provide adequate medical care. For example, in New York, Section 70(2)(c) of the New York State Correction Law directs Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officials to maintain and operate correctional facilities "with due regard to ... [t]he health and safety of every person in the custody of the Department."²²¹ There are also common law (law made through judge's opinions, rather than by statute) claims of medical malpractice and negligence actions that you may bring.

The most common method of proving that a defendant breached a duty is to have an expert provide testimony that the defendant did not use the usually accepted procedures. For example, in Stanback v. State, the plaintiff's expert testified that an x-ray of plaintiff's knee would have revealed his torn ligament. However, prison doctors...