Section 1983 Liability And Custodial Suicide

This paper reviews recent federal court rulings on section 1983 cases relating to custodial suicide. The criteria for succeeding in such cases was not clearly articulated until the Farmer v. Brennan case was decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1994. Unfortunately for the families of deceased inmates, the Farmer ruling made the already challenging task of prevailing in federal court even more difficult. This paper includes an analysis of the defenses available to corrections personnel faced with a section 1983 lawsuit for a correctional suicide that occurred on their watch.