DRTx Files Brief Involving Suicide of Inmate with Mental Illness

DRTx, joined by several other organizations, filed a friend-of-the-court Brief in the United States Supreme Court in a case where jailors placed a man they knew to be suicidal in a cell with a 30-inch telephone cord that the inmate proceeded to use to die by suicide. The Brief discusses the well-known and well-documented risks of ligatures in Texas jails, including cords, and implores the Court to reverse the 5^th Circuit’s decision that allowed the jailers to escape liability by being willfully blind to obvious and known ligature risks. Because Texas jails have become de facto mental health institutions, confining ever growing numbers of persons with mental illness, jailers should be required to eliminate obvious and known ligatures risks in cells or face liability for the failure to do so.

Download and read the full brief here.