Inset: Grayson Painter (Oregon Department of Corrections). Background: The Oregon State Correctional Institution where Grayson Painter was an inmate when he died by suicide after allegedly being “encouraged” by prison officers to take his own life (KGW).
The Oregon Department of Corrections has agreed to a $2.3 million settlement with the family of an inmate who died by suicide while in solitary confinement. The family claims that correctional officers urged the inmate, Grayson Painter, to end his life.
According to the family’s lawsuit, officers at Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI) reportedly taunted the 22-year-old, telling him, “Why don’t you just kill yourself, motherf—er?” while he was isolated in Marion County.
The complaint further claims that neighboring inmates witnessed officers taunting Painter and calling him derogatory names. Painter, in distress, requested a book from the staff, and although another inmate offered books for comfort, he declined, saying he “won’t be around much longer.”
Painter was incarcerated following charges including assaulting a public safety officer and first and second-degree criminal mischief. The Oregon DOC released a statement after his death on June 29, 2023, noting that Painter could have been released as early as March 26, 2025.
The lawsuit alleges that Painter displayed “erratic behavior” due to “severe persistent mental illness,” which staff mistakenly believed was caused by intoxicants.
The complaint emphasizes that Painter was in the throes of a mental health crisis, dealing with issues such as a psychotic disorder and ADHD. His struggles were compounded by a traumatic brain injury from a 2019 car accident, substance use disorder, and a documented history of suicidal thoughts and self-harm, according to his family.
“Painter was brought into the [solitary confinement unit] at OSCI to provide a urine sample,” his family alleged. “The urinalysis results came back negative.”
Painter had been placed in a 6-by-9-foot “black box” cell and given “minimal time outside of the cell,” according to the complaint. He began experiencing “delusions, was suspicious of his surroundings, and was yelling,” per the complaint. His in-cell camera had also allegedly stopped functioning.
“Despite Mr. Painter’s recorded medical history, observed self-harm behaviors earlier that day, and the sergeants’ request to place him in a cell that allowed for 24-hour surveillance, there is no indication that ODOC staff tried to engage with Mr. Painter, provide him with any care, check on Mr. Painter, or fix the camera in his cell after it stopped working,” the complaint said.
Hours later, a correctional officer went to Painter’s cell to check on him, according to the complaint. “He observed Mr. Painter hanging by his neck from the cell bars with a bed sheet,” the complaint said, alleging that staff “cut him down” and then “shackled” his ankles “as soon as he was placed on the floor.”
Painter’s family accused officers and ODOC of being “deliberately indifferent” to his mental condition and said they failed him by placing “a patient with severe persistent mental illness” into solitary confinement. They also failed to move to a higher level of care when Painter’s “behavior and health appeared to worsen; failed to initiate suicide watch precautions after demonstrated self-harm; failed to address the camera failure in Mr. Painter’s cell; failed to regularly monitor Mr. Painter while he was in a double-door cell; punished instead of treated a patient undergoing a severe mental health crisis; and encouraged his suicide with their words and actions,” according to the complaint.
“In taking these actions, defendants were deliberately indifferent to Mr. Painter’s serious medical needs and were deliberately indifferent to a serious risk of harm to him, in violation of his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the complaint concluded.
Painter’s family argued that even if Painter was using illegal substances, which he wasn’t, ODOC staff didn’t have the right to “deliberately choose to deny him life-saving mental health treatment and dismiss Mr. Painter’s mental suffering and anguish.”
Painter’s mother, Jennifer Painter, told local CBS affiliate KOIN that his family’s lives “will never be the same” after what happened to him.
“No settlement or verdict will bring him back, but it’s my sincere hope that this result not only causes ODOC to change their ways but reminds everyone that they have rights and dignity that can and should be vindicated,” she said.
ODOC did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment.
