U.S. district court: conditions medical care.

• Position: Civil Rights

Brown v. Mitchell, 308 F.Supp.2d 682 (E.D.Va. 2004). The administratrix of an inmate's estate filed a [section] 1983 action, alleging that the inmate's death was the result of a city jail's overcrowding and jail officials' deliberate indifference to the inmate's serious medical condition. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss, in part, and denied in part. The district court held that the city's purported inaction to relieve jail overcrowding could constitute an official policy or custom sufficient to support liability under [section] 1983 for the inmate's death. The inmate had a compromised immune system and died of a bacterial infection. The inmate had been jailed for failure to pay child support. During a previous incarceration he had been separated from the general population because of his heightened susceptibility to infection and illness. The inmate was assigned to a housing unit that was designed to house 40 inmates, but which held 186 inmates at the time. The housing unit had three toilets and two urinals. According to the court, the city's housing of inmates in grossly crowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary jail conditions was so likely to result in inmate sickness and suffering that there was an obvious likelihood of constitutional deprivations.

The court found that the fact that the state board of corrections had not brought action against the city for failing to meet minimum standards at the jail, and did not try to compel the county to correct any perceived problems, did not establish that the city was not deliberately indifferent to alleged overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the jail.

...