Taylor v. Barkes (575 U.S. 822)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 1, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 575 U.S. 822 · 135 S. Ct. 2042
- Decided
- June 1, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2014
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Opinion PER CURIAM. Christopher Barkes, "a troubled man with a long history of mental health and substance abuse problems," was arrested on November 13, 2004, for violating his probation. Barkes v. First Correctional Medical, Inc.,766 F.3d 307, 310-311 (C.A.3 2014). Barkes was taken to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington, Delaware. As part of Barkes's intake, a nurse who worked for the contractor providing healthcare at the Institution conducted a medical evaluation. Id.,at 311. The evaluation included a mental health screening designed in part to assess whether an inmate was suicidal. The nurse employed a suicide screening form based on a model form developed by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) in 1997. The form listed 17 suicide risk factors. If the inmate's responses and nurse's observations indicated that at least eight were present, or if certain serious risk factors were present, the nurse would notify a physician and initiate suicide prevention measures. Id.,at 311, 313. Barkes disclosed that he had a history of psychiatric treatment and was on medication. He also disclosed that he had attempted suicide in 2003, though not-as far as the record indicates-that he had also done so on three other occasions. And he indicated that he was not currently thinking about killing himself. Because only two risk factors were…
Excerpt of a 10,387-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.