Personal Injury Law

Backwards Justice: Prison Inmates Filing Suit against the State?

By mbrickley

Prison inmates have their rights, too. In the Dallas County jail, two different inmates and their families filed injury lawsuits against the county, claiming they were neglected and denied much-needed medical treatment.

According to a report from the Dallas Morning News, the county paid out nearly $500,000 in damages for the two cases. The first suit was filed as a wrongful death in 2005, when a schizophrenic inmate died of pneumonia and the prison guards did not take her to the infirmary for medical treatment after she was found in her cell lying in her own waste. Her family will be awarded $250,000 in compensation.

The second lawsuit involved an inmate who was punched in the eye by another inmate, and clearly needed medical attention after losing his vision because of the blow. Guards refused to send him to doctors, and he never received the surgery he needed to properly fix his severely bruised eye. He will receive $190,000 for compensation.

An injury lawyer helped with the injury settlements in both of these cases.

The Dallas Morning News article also cited other cases of neglect of inmates needing medical treatment in the Dallas County jail in the past decade.

Moral of this story? If you ever find yourself inprisoned in Dallas, don’t get hurt, or you may never receive treatment.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).