The Estelle v. Gamble case is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision from 1976 that established the standard for deliberate indifference to serious medical needs in prison settings.
In this case, J.W. Gamble, an inmate in Texas, claimed that prison officials showed deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs after he injured his back while working in the prison. The Supreme Court held that deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain proscribed by the Eighth Amendment.
The Court established that to prove an Eighth Amendment violation regarding medical care, a prisoner must show: （1） a serious medical need exists, and （2） prison officials acted with deliberate indifference to that need. This case set the precedent for prisoner medical rights litigation across the United States.
The decision emphasized that while not every claim of inadequate medical treatment constitutes a violation of the Eighth Amendment, systematic failures to provide adequate medical care or intentional interference with prescribed treatment can rise to the level of constitutional violations. |
