Jacob Andrews v. Wayne Cty., Mich., 957 F.3d 714

Background

Angela White was a pretrial detainee at Wayne County Jail who kept several medications (including Verapamil) under the Jail’s "Keep on Person" (KOP) self‑medication program; she later ingested Verapamil and died from Verapamil toxicity, ruled a suicide.
At intake White reported a past suicide attempt but denied current suicidal ideation; intake MA Dawn Benette flagged her for follow‑up.
RN Raymond Carnill conducted a nearly two‑hour medical/mental evaluation, did not review Benette’s intake form, found White anxious but denying suicidal thoughts, continued her prescriptions, referred her for psychiatric follow‑up, and placed her in the infirmary (not the mental‑health unit).
The Jail’s 2012 KOP policy allowed most inmates (except those housed on the mental‑health unit) to self‑administer meds, but reserved discretion to restrict self‑administration for safety; Verapamil was not on the restricted list until after White’s death.
White overdosed in custody; her fiancé Jacob Andrews sued Wayne County under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging the KOP policy and failure to train caused deliberate indifference; the district court granted summary judgment for the County, and the Sixth Circuit affirmed.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the KOP policy is facially unconstitutional or unconstitutional as applied	KOP is defective because it bases participation on housing (not condition), lacks mandatory suicide screening/exclusion for mental‑health history, and allowed White access to Verapamil	KOP permits individualized housing/medical decisions, staff retain discretion to restrict KOP, detainees have no automatic right to suicide screening, and policy change was reasonable	Court: KOP not facially defective and its application to White did not create a genuine issue of unconstitutional conduct; summary judgment affirmed
Whether the 2012 policy change (allowing psychotropic‑med patients to participate) was unconstitutional	Change removed an automatic exclusion that would have prevented White from keeping meds and was made without proper basis	Policy team reasonably revised to allow greater patient responsibility; staff discretion and safety carve‑outs remain	Court: Policy change not constitutionally irresponsible; County offered adequate rationale
Whether inadequate intake/review (failure to catch prior psychiatric history) and permitting KOP before psychiatric evaluation rendered County deliberately indifferent	Intake errors and lack of backstop allowed a past suicide attempt to go unnoticed and permitted dangerous meds on White’s person	White denied current ideation; Carnill performed a contemporaneous evaluation, referred for psych follow‑up, and could have restricted KOP if suicide risk was apparent; County lacked the outside medical records	Court: No deliberate indifference—White did not manifest a strong likelihood of suicide and staff responded reasonably to observed clinical presentation
Whether County is liable under Monell (failure to train or policy caused constitutional violation)	County failed to train staff in suicide risk assessment, causing the constitutional harm	Municipal liability requires an underlying constitutional violation and proof that inadequate training caused it; no such violation occurred here	Court: No Monell liability because there was no underlying constitutional tort and no showing that lack of training caused one

Key Cases Cited

Gray v. City of Detroit, 399 F.3d 612 (6th Cir. 2005) (pretrial detainee suicide standards; no automatic right to suicide screening absent strong likelihood)
City of Revere v. Massachusetts Gen. Hosp., 463 U.S. 239 (1983) (pretrial detainees’ right to adequate medical care under Due Process)
Comstock v. McCrary, 273 F.3d 693 (6th Cir. 2001) (psychological needs, including suicide risk, fall within detainees’ medical care rights)
Danese v. Asman, 875 F.2d 1239 (6th Cir. 1989) (right implicated is having steps taken that would have prevented suicide)
City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378 (1989) (municipal liability requires that policy or lack of training be moving force behind constitutional violation)
Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658 (1978) (municipal liability principles)
Arrington‑Bey v. City of Bedford Heights, 858 F.3d 988 (6th Cir. 2017) (standards for Monell claims and failure‑to‑train analysis)
Morgan v. Fairfield Cty., 903 F.3d 553 (6th Cir. 2018) (distinguishing policy/custom and failure‑to‑train claims)