“Death by Withdrawal”

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper authored by Taleed El-Sabawi and now available via SSRN.  Here is its abstract:

No one deserves to die just because they use drugs.  Yet, policies and practices in jails and prisons around the country continue to facilitate the death, pain, and suffering of people who use drugs by refusing to properly screen and medically manage withdrawal for persons in their custody.  In Estelle v. Gamble, the Supreme Court established a constitutional right for incarcerated persons to receive adequate medical care.  Further, it prohibited the denial of medical care that caused “the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain” and required the definition of adequate medical care to comport with evolving standards of decency.

This article argues that the failure to medically manage withdrawals in jail and prison custody amounts to deliberate indifference to a serious medical need and, as such, constitutes a violation of Fourteenth and Eighth Amendment protections.  To do so, this article presents a detailed explanation of the current medical standards of care and demonstrates the different ways in which jails and prisons have ignored or failed to faithfully adopt such standards. This article excerpts firsthand accounts of persons in withdrawal to demonstrate the level of “unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain” caused by such deliberate indifference and argues that evolving standards of decency require the abandonment of current draconian and inhumane practices.