Deliberate Indifference to Medical Care in Jail or Prison in Colorado

Deliberate Indifference to Medical Care: Understanding Your Constitutional Rights

Under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. II Sec. 20 of the Colorado State Constitution all individuals incarcerated in prison after having been convicted of a crime have a constitutional right to receive adequate medical care. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 103 (1976). Under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Art. II Sec. 25 of the Colorado Constitution this right to receive adequate medical care extends to pretrial detainees who are in jail awaiting trial on charges for which they have not been convicted. This protection applies to both governmental employees and private medical staff working within correctional facilities who are responsible for the health and wellbeing of incarcerated persons. If prison or jail medical staff or their private medical staff contractors deny you adequate medical care, you may have a civil rights claim against them for deliberate indifference to a medical care. If you believe your medical needs are being ignored, it’s essential to understand this constitutional safeguard.

What Is Deliberate Indifference to Medical Necessity?

Deliberate indifference to medical care in a jail or prison occurs when jail or prison officials or their medical staff demonstrate reckless disregard for an inmate’s serious medical needs. It goes beyond mere negligence and requires that officials knowingly or intentionally ignore a substantial risk of serious harm to the inmate’s health. This standard applies to both pretrial detainees and convicted inmates. Deliberate indifference has two components, an objective and subjective component.

For the objective component, the inmate must show that the medical need is “sufficiently serious.” Hunt v. Uphoff, 199 F.3d 1220, 1224 (10th Cir. 1999). A medical need is sufficiently serious if the condition “has been diagnosed by a physician as mandating treatment or one that is so obvious that even a lay person would easily recognize the necessity for a doctor’s attention.” If the claim alleges inadequate or delayed medical care, the prisoner must show that the delay in treatment resulted in “substantial harm.” Sealock v. Colorado, 218 F.3d 1205, 1210 (10th Cir. 2000). The substantial-harm requirement “may be satisfied by lifelong handicap, permanent loss, or considerable pain.” Garrett v. Stratman, 254 F.3d 946, 950 (10th Cir. 2001).

For the subjective component, the inmate must show that the prison official acted with a “sufficiently culpable state of mind.” A prison official acts with deliberate indifference only if he knows that the inmate is facing “a substantial risk of serious harm and disregards that risk by failing to take reasonable measures to abate it.” Accordingly, not every claim of inadequate prison medical treatment violates the Eighth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment. Estelle recognized that a prison official is not liable under the Eighth Amendment if his mental culpability falls short of deliberate indifference. For example, “an inadvertent failure to provide adequate medical care” or “an accident that may produce added anguish” does not state a cognizable claim for relief under the Eighth Amendment or Fourteenth Amendment.

Instances of Deliberate Indifference to Medical Necessity

Deliberate indifference to medical care can happen in various situations, including:

Ignoring Obvious Poor Health: Prison or staff may fail to recognize obvious signs of poor health in an inmate, such as visible symptoms or distress. Ignoring these signs without proper investigation can be considered deliberate indifference.
When an inmate has a diagnosed medical condition that requires treatment and jail, prison, or medical staff deny the inmate reasonably adequate medical care.
If jail or prison medical staff delay or refuse to fulfill their gatekeeper of seeking medical attention on behalf of an inmate, for example, where a jail nurse delays or refuses to contact a doctor for an inmate suffering an obvious medical affliction due to deliberate indifference and the delay or refusal results in serious medical harm.
Disregarding Discharge Instructions: A prison medical provider may ignore discharge instructions from a hospital, even when there is medical evidence supporting them. This can lead to inadequate follow-up care for the inmate that results in serious medical harm.
Denying Specialty Care: Sometimes, a prison medical provider requests specialty care for an inmate, but the utilization management physician disagrees that the specialty care is medically necessary. This denial can constitute deliberate indifference.
Inadequate Response to Emergencies: If prison officials do not have a competent system for responding to medical emergencies promptly, it can amount to deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.
When an inmate needs psychiatric care and prison or jail medical staff are deliberately indifferent to the inmates psychiatric treatment needs.
When an inmate requires dental care and prison or jail medical staff are deliberately indifferent to the inmates dental treatment needs.

Proving a Deliberate Indifference Claim in Colorado

To establish a deliberate indifference civil rights claim in Colorado, a plaintiff must demonstrate the following elements:

Serious Medical Need: The medical need must be sufficiently serious, either diagnosed by a physician or so obvious that even a layperson would recognize its necessity.
Defendant’s Deliberate Indifference: You must show that the responsible officials acted with deliberate indifference – that there was a substantial risk of serious harm and jail, prison, or medical staff disregarded that risk by failing to take reasonable measures to abate it.
Causation: Defendants acts and omissions were the legal and proximate cause of plaintiff’s damages.

Remember, documenting your requests for medical care and complaints is crucial if you decide to pursue legal action. Courts take these claims seriously, as they involve the fundamental rights of inmates to receive adequate medical attention. However, these cases rise and fall on documentation.

What is the statute of limitations for a deliberate indifference to medical necessity civil rights claim in Colorado?

The statute of limitations for civil rights suits in Colorado brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or C.R.S. § 13-21-131 is two years from the time a cause of action accrues. Deliberate indifference to medical necessity civil rights claims are presumed to have accrued when the acts or omissions giving rise to the deliberate indifference claim actually occurred.

Contact Denver’s trusted deliberate indifference to medical care attorney to find out if you have a viable deliberate indifference case

Deliberate indifference to medical necessity claims are often complex as they require an in depth understanding of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence and careful investigation and analysis of medical evidence. When a person is denied adequate medical care while in jail or prison they can experience a wide array of harms including pain, suffering, injury, medical expenses, even death. Deliberate indifference to medical necessity cases require thorough investigation and steadfast advocacy to prevail in court. A skilled deliberate indifference to medical necessity attorney can help you hold the officials who denied you or a loved one adequate medical care accountable for violating your constitutional rights.

To know whether or not you have a viable deliberate indifference to a medical necessity case, the first step is to contact Rights & Liberties Law Firm to start your free police misconduct civil rights case evaluation. If your rights have been violated and your liberties trampled by a jail or prison official or their medical staff who denied you adequate medical care in jail or prison, the attorneys at Rights & Liberties Law Firm are here to fight for you and get you the justice and compensation you deserve.

Three-Step Path to Civil Rights Representation

Step one. If you’ve been the victim of police brutality or a government officer has violated your or a loved one’s rights, complete our Free Civil Rights Case Evaluation. Confidentially upload videos, photos, and other documents of evidentiary value directly to our civil rights case evaluation portal and start the process of holding those who abuse their powers accountable for violating your rights. Civil rights cases rise and fall on the facts of the case. Our Free Civil Rights Case Evaluation is designed to gather the information necessary to determine if you have a case where we can vindicate your rights and get you the justice and compensation you deserve. Be sure to answer each question in our Free Civil Rights Case Evaluation in a detailed and clear manner.

Step two. Our team will evaluate your case. If we need additional information from you to complete your case evaluation we will contact you. Once we’ve completed your case evaluation, we will promptly contact you to let you know if we can help you with your case. If so we’ll schedule a consultation to learn more about your story.

Step three. During our consultation we’ll determine if there’s a viable path to vindicate your rights. If there is, and you’re ready to hold those accountable who violated your rights, we’ll provide you with a contingency fee agreement to review and sign. Then the fight is on. You pay nothing until we’re victorious.