In separate rulings issued yesterday, U.S. District Court Chief John McConnell, Jr. has rejected requests by the state to dismiss lawsuits filed against RI Department of Corrections’ (RIDOC) supervisors and staff on behalf of the family members of two individuals who died by suicide at the prison within the span of a few months in 2023.
The lawsuits, filed by ACLU cooperating attorneys Mark Decof, Jeffrey Mega and Shad Miller, from the law firm of Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C, allege that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to the decedents’ known suicide risk, and that the failure to properly intervene or provide them necessary medical care was negligent and violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
In his brief opinions, Judge McConnell held that, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true, which he was required to do at this stage of the case on a motion to dismiss, the state defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity from suit for the deaths of Dana Leyland and Peter De Los Santos.
De Los Santos, 35 years old, had a known history of substance use disorders and was awaiting trial at the Intake Service Center when he died. While he was suffering withdrawal symptoms, he hanged himself with his shoelaces in August 2023. The judge, citing the lawsuit’s allegations, noted that De Los Santos:
"presented to RIDOC as an unusually strong suicide risk; he was wearing a suicide prevention Tyvek suit, Pawtucket Police told RIDOC that he threatened suicide, and Mr. De Los Santos himself told Defendants that he was contemplating suicide. Defendants did not follow their own protocol and instead ignored these signs, putting Mr. De Los Santos at risk. The Supervisory Defendants did not train the COs on RIDOC’s suicide prevention policy, did not implement the policy, and did not hold COs responsible or accountable for violating the policy."
The second decedent was Dana Leyland, 39 years old, who was awaiting trial on drug offenses in April 2023 and also suffering withdrawal symptoms from substance use disorder when he hanged himself with a bed sheet while in solitary confinement. In denying the state’s motion to dismiss this case, the judge cited the lawsuit’s allegations that “RIDOC and its agents knew that Mr. Leyland was suicidal [and] that Defendants failed to act in the face of this knowledge. They placed him on a suicide watch, but then failed to watch. They did not constantly observe him in violation of their own procedure.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 27 inmates died by suicide in Rhode Island prisons between 2001 and 2019. There were at least four deaths by suicide at the ACI in 2023; prison officials made no public acknowledgement of them until three had taken place in the first five months of the year. The family members expressed frustration at their inability to obtain detailed information about the circumstances surrounding the deaths. The suits seek compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the families. As a result of the court rulings, the cases can proceed with further discovery and, ultimately, a trial.
ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown said today, “We are very pleased that the court denied the state’s attempt to short-circuit the efforts of these two families to get to the truth of their loved ones’ deaths. These deaths were tragic and, we believe, avoidable. We welcome the opportunity to uncover all of the facts surrounding these terrible incidents and, hopefully prevent others from happening in the future.”
The court decisions are available here.
