Prisoner – Deliberate Indifference

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Brenda Quinn, as administrator for the Estate of Travis Fredrickson v. Wexford Health Sources, Inc., et al.,

Case No.: 20-1483

Officials: EASTERBROOK, WOOD, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Prisoner – Deliberate Indifference

Travis Fredrickson was a troubled person. Events not pertinent to this appeal landed him in Illinois’s prison system, where he spent time at several institutions. Throughout that time, he received services to manage his serious mental-health problems, which included anxiety, depression, and the effects of long-term drug dependence. While in custody at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center (operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections, or IDOC), he died by suicide.

Frederickson’s mother and representative, Brenda Quinn, filed this lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of her son’s Eighth Amendment rights two years to the date after his death. She alleges that several IDOC employees, of whom two now remain, showed deliberate indifference to her son’s risk of harm, and she accuses Wexford Health Sources, Inc., which contracts with Illinois to provide health services in its prisons, of failing to implement and follow procedures to ensure that incarcerated persons receive continuous mental-health services during transfers between IDOC facilities. The district court granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment. We agree with its assessment of the record, and so we affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.