Estate of S. Novack v. County of Wood, municipal corp.

• Decision Date: 07 August 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-3270,99-3270
• Citation: 226 F.3d 525
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) Estate of Shannon Novack, deceased, by its personal representative, Susan Turbin, and Susan Turbin, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. County of Wood, a municipal corporation, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 525

226 F.3d 525 (7th Cir. 2000) Estate of Shannon Novack, deceased, by its personal representative, Susan Turbin, and Susan Turbin, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. County of Wood, a municipal corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-3270

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued March 27, 2000

Decided August 7, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. No. 98-C-0850-S--John C. Shabaz, Chief Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Flaum, Chief Judge, Posner and Williams, Circuit Judges.

Flaum, Chief Judge.

The estate of Shannon Novack and Susan Turbin brought suit against the County of Wood (the "County") under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983, alleging that the County deprived Novack of his Eighth Amendment rights when it failed to prevent his suicide during his incarceration in the Wood County Jail ("WCJ"). The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On December 22, 1997, Shannon Novack was diagnosed by Dr. Edward Root as a paranoid schizophrenic who tended to be impulsive and who was a possible suicide risk. Dr. Root prescribed medication to address Novack's condition. On December 29, 1997, while he was with his mother Susan Turbin and grandmother Gladys Jaehn, Novack became agitated and threatened to kill himself. Turbin convinced Novack to voluntarily commit himself at the Norwood Mental Health Center ("Norwood"). However, when Turbin and Novack arrived at Norwood, Novack changed his mind about being committed and left the facility.

A short time later, Novack was arrested by an officer from the Marshfield Police Department on outstanding warrants and taken to the Marshfield police station. Shortly thereafter, Wood County Deputy Sheriff Rick Kirst transported Novack from the police station to the Wood County Jail. Deputy Kirst talked with Turbin and Kenneth Wahlstrand, an employee at Norwood, regarding Novack's condition. Deputy Kirst told Turbin and Wahlstrand that he would notify WCJ staff of Novack's potential for suicide and that jail personnel would watch him closely. When Deputy Kirst met with Deputy Raymond Starks to transfer Novack to WCJ, he informed Starks that Novack was a suicide risk and should be watched closely. Neither Kirst nor Starks thought that Novack behaved in an unusual manner during their contact with him.

Novack was booked into WCJ by Officer Denise Ellis, who conducted a medical screening of Novack as part of standard WCJ procedure. The medical screening is intended to identify physical or mental problems that an inmate may possess. In his responses to the medical screening questions, Novack indicated that he had seen mental health professionals in the past, including a visit to Dr. Root earlier in the week, but stated that he was not considering suicide and had never attempted suicide. Deputy Starks then informed Officer Ellis that Novack was a suicide risk and that WCJ staff should watch him accordingly. Deputy Starks also told Officer Ellis that Novack had been at Norwood earlier in the day but had not been admitted. Officer Ellis concluded that Novack had a possible mental illness based on the information provided by Deputy Starks and the medical screening.

Officer Ellis decided to place Novack in an observation cell which is normally used for inmates on suicide watch. The WCJ officer on duty the following day was not informed of the reasons for Novack's placement in the observation cell. Novack remained in the observation cell until about 2:00 p.m. the next day when he was taken to court and it was determined that he would remain in custody because of a probation violation. Upon his return from court, Novack was placed in a two-person cell in the general jail population. Officer King, the supervisor on duty at the time, does not know who made the decision to place Novack in the general population instead of in the observation cell or why that decision was made.

The following day, December 31, 1997, Dr. Root telephoned WCJ to prescribe new medication for Novack. WCJ personnel filled the prescription and administered the medication to Novack during the remainder of his stay at WCJ.

During the following two weeks, Annalee Miller, an inmate housed in the cell next to Novack's, heard Novack pounding on the cell walls on a daily basis and periodically giggling uncontrollably. Miller reported Novack's behavior to WCJ officers and expressed concern that Novack might be in need of mental health care. Novack's cell-mate Lewis England also saw Novack regularly pounding on the cell walls and thought he was in need of mental health care. However, WCJ personnel did not observe any unusual behavior by Novack during his stay at WCJ.

At 10:00 p.m. on January 17, 1998, WCJ officers entered Novack's cell to give him his prescribed medication. At 12:05 a.m. on January 18, jail personnel returned to Novack's cell and discovered that Novack had hung himself using a bed sheet. Susan Turbin, Novack's mother, brought suit on behalf of Novack's estate and on her own behalf against Wood County alleging that the County had deprived her son of his Eighth Amendment rights by having inadequate policies and practices for treating mentally ill inmates and by failing to adequately train WCJ personnel to provide necessary mental health care to her son that would have prevented his suicide. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the County, and the plaintiffs now appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the County de novo. See Johnson v. University of Wisc. Eau-Claire, 70 F.3d 469, 477 (7th Cir. 1995). We look at all evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs and draw all reasonable inferences in their favor. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250 (1986).

Prison inmates have an Eighth Amendment right to be confined under conditions that provide "adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical care." Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 832 (1994) (quoting Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 526-27 (1984)). In addition, prison officials are responsible for taking reasonable steps to guarantee the safety of the inmates in their charge. Id. To make out a claim for a violation of an inmate's Eighth Amendment right to adequate conditions of confinement, a plaintiff must make two showings: "First, the danger to the inmate must be objectively serious, posing a substantial risk of serious harm. Second, the prison official must have a sufficiently culpable state of mind-- one of 'deliberate indifference' to inmate health or safety." Haley v. Gross, 86 F.3d 630, 640-41 (7th Cir. 1996); see Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834.

"Deliberate indifference," as it is used in the Eighth Amendment context, comprehends more than mere negligence but less than the purposeful or knowing infliction of harm. See Farmer, 511 U.S. at 836; Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106 (1976); Haley, 86 F.3d at 641. Deliberate indifference requires that a prison official know of and disregard a substantial risk of serious harm to inmate health or safety. See Farmer, 511 U.S. at 837. The deliberate indifference standard is a subjective one. It is not enough that there was a danger of which a prison official objectively should have been aware. "[T]he official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference." Id.

Shannon Novack committed suicide while incarcerated in the Wood County Jail. The plaintiffs argue that Novack's suicide was the result of WCJ policies and practices that reflected the County's deliberate indifference to the medical needs of mentally ill inmates. Suicide is a "serious harm" and prison officials must take reasonable preventative steps when they are aware that there is a substantial risk that an inmate may attempt to take his own life. See Estate of Cole v. Fromm, 94 F.3d 254, 259 (7th Cir. 1996) (holding that defendant prison officials "may be liable for [an inmate's] suicide if they were deliberately indifferent to a substantial suicide risk"); see also Collignon v. Milwaukee County, 163 F.3d 982, 990 (7th Cir. 1998); Payne v. Churchich, 161 F.3d 1030, 1041 (7th Cir. 1998). Mere knowledge that an inmate is behaving violently or "acting in a 'freaky' manner" is not sufficient to impute awareness of a substantial risk of suicide. State Bank of St. Charles v. Camic, 712 F.2d 1140, 1146 (7th Cir. 1983); see also Mathis v. Fairman, 120 F.3d 88, 91 (7th Cir. 1997). In order to be liable under the Eighth Amendment, a prison official must be cognizant of the significant likelihood that an inmate may imminently seek to take his own life and must fail to take reasonable steps to prevent the inmate from performing this act. See Collignon, 163 F.3d at 990 (holding that even placing an inmate on suicide watch may not demonstrate a subjective awareness of a substantial risk of imminent suicide); Camic, 712 F.3d at 1146 (holding that officers took reasonable measures to prevent an inmate's suicide where they were unaware that the inmate was a high suicide risk but removed the prisoner's belt and shoe laces in order to guard against suicide attempts).

In this case, when Shannon Novack was first brought to the WCJ, jail officials were informed that he had been at a mental health facility earlier in the day and that he was a potential risk for suicide. Novack was then questioned concerning his mental health, and he responded that he was not contemplating suicide and had never attempted suicide. In addition, neither the sheriff's deputies who transported Novack to WCJ nor the jail personnel who initially admitted him were aware of any suicidal behavior exhibited by Novack. Nevertheless, Novack was placed in an observation cell until he was taken to court the next day. Novack did not exhibit any...