Medical Treatment in Jails and Prisons
We encourage people who need medical and mental health treatment to request care using the sick call procedure at their facility. If they are not satisfied with the care that they received, they should file a grievance regarding the issue using the jail or prison’s internal grievance process, and take (“exhaust”) any appeals that can be taken inside that process before going to court. Under the law, this is required before a person in prison can file a lawsuit about something that happened to them in prison.
Depending on the issue, there are different types of claims and different kinds of courts (“jurisdictions”) where people can file a lawsuit—it is important to file the right type of claim in the right kind of court or the claim could be dismissed. Because of the limits of our resources,our office is not able to represent every person who writes to us regarding medical treatment claims. However, we read every letter that we get, and, when we cannot offer to represent someone, we write back and send forms, manuals or other information if we have it, to help people in prison file a lawsuit on their own.
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Most medical care claims fall into one of two categories. The first is a claim that prison or jail staff was deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need. This kind of claim can be brought as a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in federal court. To win a claim like this, a person needs to show four things: 1) the person had a serious medical need, 2) the medical staff or other staff knew about the need, 3) the medical staff intentionally chose not to treat or address that need, and 4) the lack of treatment caused a serious injury.
The second kind of claim is where someone was injured by the carelessness (instead of intentional action) of medical staff. This kind of claim can be brought as a a medical negligence lawsuit under state law. For someone who was hurt in a jail facility, a medical negligence claim is filed in Superior Court in the county where the incident(s) occurred. For someone who was hurt in a prison facility, a medical negligence claim is filed in the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
To win a negligence claim, a person needs to prove four things: 1) medical staff owed them a duty of reasonable care, 2) medical staff breached that duty, 3) the breach of that duty directly and legally caused an injury, and 4) the injury suffered as a result of the breach was big enough to win money damages. The largest challenge for people in prison filing medical negligence claims is Rule 9(j) of NC Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires that a medical expert certify, as part of the complaint, that the care the person received did not meet the standard of care. Medical expert witnesses can be difficult to find and expensive. NCPLS is not able to help people find or pay for medical experts to review their cases.
Helpful Links:
North Carolina Medical Board (governing doctors, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners)
North Carolina Board of Nursing (governing nurses other than nurse practitioners and certified nursing assistants)
North Carolina Division of Health Service Regulation (governing certified nursing assistants)
