Substandard Medical Care in U.S. Prisons: Improvement through Civil Liability Actions

Substandard Medical Care in U.S. Prisons: Improvement through Civil Liability Actions
Lily Chi-Fang Tsai
September 2014

ISBN-13:  978-1-59332-756-9 / Hardcover
Dimensions:  5.5 x 8.5 / x, 154 pages

Price   $69.00

Description

Contrary to the ideal set up in Estelle v. Gamble (1976), inmates’ medical needs were infrequently recognized by state courts and normally rejected through the examination of the two-pronged standard. Tsai contributes to existing literature by examining inadequate medical care and medical malpractice litigation against prison and jail physicians who have been sued in state courts by inmates during the past decade. By classifying the treatment actions or inactions that led inmates to file for civil remedies and examining the negative health outcomes that resulted from physicians’ actions and inactions and their responses and justification techniques, Tsai analyzes state cases and develops a descriptive profile of how inmates, physicians, and the courts are defining and responding to medical misconduct in U.S. correctional facilities.

About the Author

Lily Tsai is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Criminal Justice at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She earned her Doctorate in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, Masters of Arts in Criminology from the National Taipei University, in Taipei, Taiwan, and Bachelor in Law from Soochow University. Her primary research interests are in correctional medical care, juvenile justice, campus crime, and policing.