Medical Care Complaints

A senior citizen was jailed at a county jail where custodial death occurs at a much higher rate than the average rate for county jails of comparable size. The charge against him related to a refusal to sign a document. While incarcerated, a nurse allegedly tossed his medications in the trash because they were bottled incorrectly. When the original prescription bottle was taken to jail, a deputy refused to accept the medications. As a result, the detainee was forced to go for more than one day without medication for diabetes.

By the time he was released from the jail, he said that he had begun hallucinating. He shared that prescription medication for a heart problem was not given to him by jail staff. He felt that he could have easily died while in jail. His case is currently under investigation.

An expert who analyzed jail data to try to arrive at solutions for high rates of custodial deaths found that quality of medical care in jails has built-in tension because profit level is directly affected by the amount of medical care provided at a facility. He said that when the quality of medical care for inmates is sacrificed for the sake of profits, situations in which the lives of inmates are put at risk can quickly develop.

There was a point at which two major jail health care companies merged and, afterward, the resulting merger has been sued in federal courts close to 1400 times. The cases included wrongful deaths.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and these ongoing posts about custodial deaths that occurred outside of Texas.

This website’s posts are intended to provide information. There is no intention to infer that any person or institution has engaged in wrongdoing.

–Guest Contributor