Deaths in U.S. Jails Rise as Medical Care is Outsourced to Companies in Which Inmate Care is Allegedly Neglected to Ensure Greater Profits – Part 2
The custodial death mentioned in Part 1 of this series was one of two that occurred in a two-month period that two experienced nurses and a physician considered preventable, as determined by a review of emails and internal jail memos about the care of those inmates. The three medical professionals reported what they believed to the local Sheriff and also accused the health care agency of making profit a greater priority than saving lives.
The three individuals were all fired for speaking out against their employer.
In that city, a story of fatal medical neglect was assembled through confidential monitor reports, unreported testimony of whistleblowers, thousands of police and court documents, and interviews with about twelve former jail staff and medical personnel.
Some of the misconduct that the same healthcare contractor was found to allegedly be associated with included the following:
- Prescription drugs routinely went missing.
- Mentally ill inmates did not receive treatment and their records were falsified.
- Gravely ill patients were denied hospitalization.
- No doctor was on-site for weeks at a time, and care was left to nurses and video calls with physicians.
- A single psychiatrist was given the responsibility of providing psychiatric treatment to all 400 of the inmates at the jail deemed mentally ill. This constituted one-quarter of the jail’s entire population.
Although the healthcare contractor claims that patient care was the priority and that staff members were told to hospitalize inmates as needed, records tell a different story. For example, a doctor made a request for an inmate with a treatable heart condition to be hospitalized, but that request was denied. The inmate died. An inmate who had not received her prescription medications attacked and crippled a guard. Within 32 hours of crawling across a floor to beg for medical care at a hospital, an inmate died as a result of a blood clot in his leg.
Learn more about this story in Part 1 and this ongoing series.
This post, like all posts on this site, is an informational resource. There is no intent to imply that any institution, organization, or individual has engaged in misconduct of any kind.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh