$150,000 Jury Award Upheld in Jail Suicide

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a $150,000 damage award to the family of a man who hanged himself in the Los Angeles County Jail, holding that evidence in the case demonstrated that medical understaffing at the jail “directly contributed” to the man’s suicide.

Upholding what was believed to be the first case in which the county has been held liable for a jail suicide, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said there was adequate evidence to support a jury’s finding of “deliberate indifference” on the part of jail officials to the prisoner’s need for psychiatric treatment.

A three-judge panel of the court rejected the county’s contention that jail officials never adopted an affirmative policy of indifference toward the needs of jail inmates.

“This contention misses the point,” Judge Charles Wiggins wrote for the court. “The appellants seem to argue that only affirmative acts constitute a policy or custom. The very notion of deliberate ‘indifference’ connotes a regime where neglect of detainees’ medical and psychological needs proves a constitutional violation.”

Sergio Alvarez Cabrales of North Hollywood had already attempted suicide after his Oct. 27, 1983, arrest on a burglary charge. Having been diagnosed by a jail psychiatrist as a “schizotypal personality,” Cabrales was placed in a “behavior observation module,” where prisoners may be observed every half an hour. There, deputies caught him trying to leap from the top of the cell bars with blanket strips tied around his neck.

Two days later, he was released back into the general jail population after a jail psychiatrist determined that the suicide attempt was a “gesture” undertaken to get out of the observation unit.

Solitary Confinement

Cabrales was placed in solitary confinement about a week later after having been involved in a fight. A little more than 10 days later, he was found dead, hanging by a bandage from a towel rack in his cell.

The family’s lawyer, Marion Yagman, argued that jail officials demonstrated deliberate indifference to Cabrales’ psychiatric needs, allowing him to spend only three to four minutes with a psychiatrist, despite his history of psychiatric treatment at a county facility.

The plaintiffs presented expert affidavits that concluded that the jail was “seriously understaffed” with medical and psychiatric workers. The experts noted that an estimated 1,500 to 1,600 detainees a month showed some need for psychiatric attention, while jail staffing levels allowed a psychiatrist to spend about 12 minutes a month with any one of them.

County attorneys in their appeal argued that the experts the plaintiffs relied on were not testifying from direct evidence of conditions in the jail, but only on what they had been told. But the appeals court called that argument “irrelevant” and said the trial judge had properly refused to throw the lawsuit out before trial.

The ‘Moving Force’

“The affidavits relied on by the district court adequately demonstrate that medical understaffing at the jail directly contributed to the decedent’s suicide,” said Wiggins in the opinion joined by Judges Jerome Farris and M. D. Crocker.

“The omission by the county and its policy makers in providing adequate medical care at the Men’s Central Jail was the policy or custom that was the ‘moving force’ behind the deprivation of the decedent’s constitutional rights without due process,” the court said.

The court also held that U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer did not err in refusing to grant the county’s motion for a judgment in its favor despite the jury’s damage award. Pfaelzer had denied the motion on the grounds that the county should have raised an objection before the jury began its deliberations.

Yagman could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But her law partner, Stephen Yagman, who also worked on the case, said the plaintiffs also had evidence that they were not permitted to introduce showing that there have been about 55 suicides at the jail over the last 10 years.

Jail’s Record Cited

In the past, Sheriff’s Department officials have said that the jail’s suicide rate is lower than that in the general population. In a 1986 interview, one official estimated that one third of the inmates are mentally ill.

Over the last several years, jail officials have implemented policy changes to help handle mentally disturbed prisoners. These include a special in-patient unit for severely disturbed inmates, increases in psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and mental health counselors and a treatment program of individual counseling and group therapy.

The two plaintiffs’ lawyers lost their own appeal of Pfaelzer’s decision to reduce the $200,000 attorney fee award in the case by 25%, a decision that reflected the fact that no damages were awarded against any of the nearly 20 deputies originally sued.

Deputy County Counsel Kevin C. Brazile, who represented the county, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.