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Abstract: 

Indiana inmates brought suit against the state’s Commissioner of Corrections, Chief Medical Officer, and Director of Health services claiming that they refused to treat inmates suffering from chronic hepatitis C with new direct-acting antiviral drugs that can cure HCV in only 12 weeks with daily oral medication, at a 95% cure rate and are now recognized as the standard of care, but are also very expensive (cost of treatment can be as high as $64,000). Here, we examine a court’s ruling granting class action status to the inmates’ First Amendment complaint, which consolidates the claims of more than 3,000 potential plaintiffs. In a case from Illinois, Norwood v. Ghosh, the 7th Circuit found that, in spite of many lapses in care that led to a knee replacement, evidence against defendant Wexford Health Sources did not rise to the level of “deliberate indifference” required of §1983 claims; we examine the facts of the case, including details of his treatment leading up to replacement surgery, and why the court reached the decision it did. In a third case, the 10th Circuit ruled that an inmates claim about inadequate access to clean drinking water was sufficient to sustain a §1983 claim. Finally we examine the 4th Circuit’s decision in Adams v. Ferguson against the survivors of a mentally disordered inmate who died in custody. The inmate, Jamycheal Mitchell, had been arrested for car theft but found incompetent to stand trial, and ordered to a state mental hospital. The order was misplaced, and Mitchell deteriorated, then died of severe malnutrition while confined in jail. Plaintiff filed suit against the state commissioner of corrections (Ferguson) and others, claiming that the jail’s failure to transfer Mitchell to a psychiatric hospitals better suited to treating such individuals amounted to deliberate indifference to serious medical need. In the case reviewed here, against the commissioner, the court ruled that in the absence of any statutory requirement that mentally disordered inmates be placed in mental health facilities, a state commissioner could not be held liable for the death.

Keywords: Chronic Hepatitis; Deliberate Indifference Standard; Clean Drinking Water; Failure to Transfer Mentally Disordered Inmate from Jail to Psychiatric Hospital

Affiliations:  1: State of Ohio Supreme Court Library.