Legal Rights of Prisoners and Detainees with Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious health condition whether you are incarcerated, detained or free. Sufferers require insulin to prevent serious side effects, such as unconsciousness, infections, amputations, vision loss/blindness, brain damage, and even death.

Under the civil rights laws in the U.S., individuals with serious health conditions like diabetes should not be denied medical treatment—and those in correctional institutions like prisons and jails retain their right to receive insulin.

However, the right of prisoners and pretrial detainees with diabetes is often neglected. The failure to provide necessary medical evaluation and treatment promptly can lead to a lawsuit against the institution.

Let us learn more about this complex topic that affects inmates in many parts of the U.S., including Kansas.

Under federal law, detainees enjoy some protections under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, which prohibit deliberately indifferent medical care.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act provide additional protections against disability discrimination and Kansas State law may also protect against negligence, medical malpractice, and wrongful death.

Despite these relatively strong protections, few claims are brought by attorneys on behalf of prisoners and detainees—and few law firms are equipped to pursue such cases. Most successful claims are based on the Eighth Amendment, which protects all individuals in custody who have been convicted of crimes from “cruel and unusual punishments.”

Detainees in pre-conviction detention in jails or holding cells have similar protections under the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process and equal protection under the law.

The simple failure to provide medical care is not grounds in itself for an Eighth Amendment lawsuit. For that, it must also involve “deliberate indifference” from prison staff.

In other words, the authorities must be aware of the problem and recognize it as potentially serious but fail to act. Prison officers or other staff must know about the issues and recognize the failure to act as dangerous before their actions constitute deliberate indifference. Examples include:

• Ignoring obvious poor health
• Failing to investigate claims of poor health is enough to make a reasonable judgment
• Delaying or refusing to provide treatment for a diagnosed medical condition
• Making a “medical” decision based on non-medical factors, such as the person’s crime

Ignorance, poor judgment, or medical malpractice are not sufficient to warrant a deliberate indifference lawsuit—though they may be grounds for another type of case depending on circumstances.

For a constitutional deliberate indifference claim based on a health matter to be successful, the matter in question needs to be a “serious medical condition.”

Most courts have accepted that diabetes is a serious medical condition in deliberate indifference claims— even non-insulin-using type 2 diabetes, though more evidence may be required with this form of the condition.

Some courts note that not all insulin-treated people with diabetes require the same level of medical care but recognize that if the appropriate medical care is not administered, diabetes can worsen into a serious condition.

A distinction may be made between an inmate missing one dose of insulin, which may not constitute deliberate indifference, and missing many.

Within the prison system, there should be an awareness of the dangers of denying the correct medical treatment to inmates.

In deliberate indifference cases, an examination of a prison official’s mental state is required to prove that a known risk to the inmate’s health was disregarded This is similar to “criminal recklessness” cases, which require more than mere negligence but not a specific purpose to cause substantial harm.

If an official is unaware of a substantial risk of harm, therefore, he may not be liable even if the risk was obvious and a reasonable prison official should have noticed it.

Normally, a qualified personal injury lawyer will use circumstantial evidence to show that the risk was so obvious that the prison official must have known about it—even if the official denies knowledge of diabetes and its potentially serious health consequences for the plaintiff.

Filing claims from prison for constitutional violations such as the “deprivation of any rights” by the prison authorities can be extremely challenging. Relatively few law firms are equipped to manage such cases.

The most serious challenge stems from the fact that when states, municipalities, and government officials are defendants in such cases, considerable resources and protections are at their disposal to defend the case.

Other challenges when filing claims for constitutional violation in prison include:

• Qualified immunity protects government officials (but not municipalities) from liability from civil damages as long as their conduct does not “violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”
• The Prison Litigation Reform Act, which requires any person confined in prison, jail, or a correctional facility to meet strict requirements before filing suit under any other federal law—for instance, a physical injury must occur and be the basis for any mental or emotional damages claims.

There are several main categories of claims involving prisoners or pretrial detainees with diabetes.

Most commonly, they relate to the quality of diabetes care administered by authorities. These cases must address the fine distinction between pure negligence and deliberate indifference with care—usually requiring seasoned legal expertise to overcome the main legal challenges involved in claiming damages from a government entity.

Being treated with care, fairness, and safety while detained or serving a prison sentence are basic rights.

Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the U.S. with serious side effects if the right medications are not provided. Legal action may be an option if prompt medical attention is not provided as needed—but the bar for obtaining justice is set high.

If you or a loved one with diabetes has suffered negative consequences as a result of not receiving insulin as a prisoner or detainee in Topeka, speak to a lawyer at Irigonegaray & Revenaugh during a free case evaluation. Call us at (785) 267-6115 or contact us directly online.

We will advise you of your legal options and assess how best to claim the compensation you deserve.