Home      Login

Abstract: 

Brian Farabee has a seventh-grade education; and he lives with what the court terms “an extensive and tragic history of mental illness.” Over time he has developed a difficult relationship with the Virginia DOC. Farabee also has endured years of drug and physical abuse. He is damaged, to put it mildly. He began self-harming at age 10 and entered a mental hospital at about the same time. Hospital has been his home since age 13 and while he gains some procedural relief in this decision, his future is extraordinarily grim: Farabee v. Clarke, 967 F.3d 380 (4th Cir. 2020). The facts illustrate a painful divide between Farabee’s desperate need for help and the court’s focus on such procedural niceties as notice, a right to counsel, and appropriate remedial relief. One painfully learns that a substantive problem is not likely to be solved with a procedural solution.

Keywords: Farabee v. Clarke, 967 F.3d 380

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.