No problemo!
Posted on 02/13/2004 2:42:55 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:49:38 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - While prison guards allegedly watched the Super Bowl and ignored his screams for hours, an inmate on dialysis died as most of his blood drained from his body.
The death on Feb. 1 was just the latest horror story to come out of the California prison system and confront Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with one of the biggest crises of his new administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
My first thought was: Isn't there a medical staff overseeing dialysis? Something doesn't add up.
Last week I made the comment at school among a few fellow teachers that paddling at school probably saved a number of boys from prison later on. One gal, older and could also remember paddling, thought and soberly said, "You're probably right."
I'm not a medical person, but I'm assuming the dialysis shunt is permanently inserted into the patient. The machine is hooked up to it at each treatment. This inmate, for whatever reason, decided to rip it out.That doesn't negate the responsibility of the officers on duty at the time. They are required to make rounds periodically. The article doesn't say how long it took the inmate to bleed to death. That could make a big difference in whether someone was negligent on the job.
As far as the inmate yelling, that happens all the time. The noise level on a cellblock can be unbelieveable at times. And, because inmates like to scream just to aggravate the staff, officers tend to tune it out. At any given time you'll hear "Hey C.O., C.O.!!" That's a common occurrence. If you ran everytime an inmate called, you'd drive yourself nuts. Officers aren't there to wait on the convicts. In the department I worked for, inmates were required to request supplies each morning when the day officer made his first round after coming on duty. If the inmate didn't ask for it then, he wouldn't be able to get anything until he requested it the next morning. It was the inmate's responsibility to be awake in the morning to make the request.
The problem with most of these suicides is that more and more individuals with mental problems are being put in prisons. We had a large number of mentally ill inmates in the facility I worked at. Each night when they called the med run (that's when the inmates would head over to get their psych medication), hundreds of them would high-tail it to the other side of the prison to get their bug juice and pills.
In 2003, over a three month period, three of my coworkers committed suicide. One was a correctional officer, the other two were Sergeants. The officer I believe had a terminal illness. Personal problems are suspected in the case of the two Sergeants. Over the past 23 years, I've known personally of at least 4 other officers who killed themselves...not to mention family members of other employees I worked with. This isn't uncommon when you take into consideration the number of people who are incarcerated and work in this places.
No problemo!
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