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| Court Rules Inmate Can Sue Officials |
| By The Sacramento Bee |
| Published: 03/13/2006 |
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A federal appeals court ruled last week that officials at California State Prison, Sacramento, can be sued by an inmate whose right thumb failed to heal properly after a fall from a bunk bed. The fractured thumb had not been set and cast. Reversing a district judge's ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the case of Lance Jett against two prison doctors and a warden at the Folsom prison. The appeals court said Jett was entitled to a trial in federal court in Sacramento on his claim of "deliberate indifference to serious medical needs," in violation of the 8th Amendment. Jett can also try to prove a violation of a California statute that requires medical care to be summoned for an inmate who needs to have a fractured bone set and cast, the court said. Most of the California prison health care system has been placed in a federal court-supervised receivership because of similar or worse 8th Amendment violations. Nevertheless, suits like Jett's, threatening court-ordered payouts to individual prisoners, are relatively rare because few inmates have had the resources to pursue them, said Steven Fama, a prisoners' rights lawyer in the receivership case. Fama said the Jett decision "should add to the notice" that the state has been violating federal standards. Jett's accident occurred in October 2001. An emergency room doctor advised an early appointment with an orthopedic doctor. But despite doctors' notations and appeals by Jett seeking medical attention, he didn't see an orthopedic doctor for six months and then waited 13 months longer to see a hand specialist. The fracture failed to align upon healing. Jett claims he was left with pain in the meantime. |
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