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Abstract: 

Federal claims based on custodial suicides nearly always present at least two liability bases: failure of medical care and failure to protect. The court here conflates the two claims by pursuing deliberate indifference—and finding it—in relation to conditions of confinement. A right to treatment claim focuses, or should, on a different, second order objective: the duty to ameliorate suicide but by a treatment intervention designed to dissuade the inmate. A duty to provide a safe environment is preventive to be sure but the focus is on external factors including monitoring, hanging points, clothing and other objects available. The court’s decision here takes place in the context of another Monell claim. Plaintiffs must show a custom or policy of the governmental entity that was the deliberate choice of a course of action (or inaction) that violated a clearly stated and known, or should have been known, constitutional right.

Keywords: Vela v. County of Monterey; Monell claim

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.