Quick question: the Supreme Court case that established the Eighth Amendment duty to provide medical care in corrections and introduced the “deliberate indifference” standard — decided in 1976, 429 U.S. 97 — what is it? Asking because we just revised our facility’s health services policy and put that citation on page 1.
Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976).
Right case is ‘Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976).’ When we revised ours, the best move was a hard rule that sick-call slips are time-stamped and picked up by medical within 24 hours with supervisor escalation if not — keeps you clear of deliberate indifference; do you have that clock spelled out? W. J. ESTELLE, Jr., Director, Texas Department of Corrections, et al., Petitioners, v. J. W. GAMBLE. | Supreme Court | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute.
But @jameson_garcia72 Yep — Estelle v. Gamble. One thing that’s helped us is a no-gatekeeping rule: custody radios in every medical complaint and medical signs the housing log before shift change, which has cut deliberate-indifference claims; do you run nurse rounds in seg twice daily?
But smart move putting the 1976 cite on page 1 — our best hedge against “deliberate indifference” has been a hard 24‑hour triage clock that starts the moment sick-call slips are collected, plus a documented second offer if the patient refuses. Small caveat: sync custody’s radio log with the medical tracker so audits don’t flag gaps.