Roy Exum: Horror Stories From Jail

  • Tuesday, September 29, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

I know precious little about jails, but it is pretty obvious we need to take some big and bold steps to soon replace the Hamilton County jail. When it was built it was what we needed but, right now, it is horribly over-crowded and understaffed. I am told there are more than 514 in the county jail right now – which is the maximum Sheriff Jim Hammond is allowed to incarcerate in the facility.

In addition, there are over 500 more prisoners being detained at Silverdale who should be in the county jail, but the sheriff has nowhere to put them.

Simple math: we have twice as many prisoners right now than we have accommodations, for lack of a better word. Want another horrifying fact – when the state of Tennessee hightailed it on caring for the mentally ill, guess where they ended up? About 20 percent of Hamilton County prisoners are taking psychotic medications. That’s 200 human beings whose mental-health needs are not being handled appropriately and, in a word, that is inhumane.

The reason I am on my jail bandwagon is because I just read two of the worst stories you can imagine and we can’t ever let this disease come here.

The first was in the Nashville Tennessean that described Inmate No. 81736 who died in the West Tennessee State Penitentiary on June 12, 2013. The state records state Elbert Thornton, age 55, died of natural causes. But when the autopsy report was unearthed, it stated he had broken ribs, a broken breastbone and severe burns on his genitals.

When Thornton was rushed to Lauderdale Community Hospital after efforts to resuscitate him at the prison were futile, an examining doctor noted he had numerous bruises on his head and what appeared to be “whip marks” on his upper abdomen and shoulders. In addition there was an “odd laceration” on his genitals, read the story written by Dave Boucher.

After an assistant medical examiner with the Lauderdale County determined Thornton had died of natural causes, an autopsy was conducted at the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center in Memphis where it was determined the cause of death as “multiple blunt traumatic and thermal injuries (burns).” It found there were 39 linear abrasions and scars on the front of his body and 27 more on his back, ranging from one inch to one foot in length.

The autopsy revealed nine ribs of the left side of his body were either broken or healing from fractures and 10 more were the same way on the right side. Blood was found in both lungs. There was a bruise on the inside of his left arm measuring 18-by-six inches. Severe burns, matching five inches-by-three inches, were found of the inside of each upper thigh and burns to his genitals included a “full thickness” burn that medical experts say should have set him to the hospital.

There were abrasions noted on his neck and head and further investigation found a blood-clot on his brain (subdural hematoma), which in itself can be fatal.

Here’s the kicker: The Tennessean reporter contacted the Tennessee Dept. of Corrections and spokesperson Neysa Taylor responded, “If I had blunt force trauma you would assume I was beat up. But I could have fallen out of bed.”

Taylor said she couldn’t release Thornton’s medical records, not ever to his family, but said he had “multiple medical issues,” had spilled hot water on himself just prior to his death, and had “fallen several times.” Then she refused the Tennessean’s request to interview Dept. Of Corrections Commissioner Derrick Schofield.

How does that story sit with you? Let’s look at another: A nurse who worked at the somewhat notorious Oklahoma County Detention Center in Oklahoma City has come forward and – on the condition of anonymity – said she still has nightmares.

In a story written by Harrison Jacobs for Business Insider, he said twice as many inmates are being held than the facility can handle and to illustrate how bad it is, he quoted a nurse who worked there between 2007 and 2008 who came forward after the Department of Justice issued a scathing report. Here are selected paragraphs:

"I still have nightmares about working there … It was so traumatic." According to the nurse, problems at the jail began with the facility, which she described as "a nasty, filthy, stinking mess. Staph infections ran rampant in the cells. Inmates came everyday eaten up by staph infections," she said. "I can't tell you how many people I treated for staph."

“In one case,” Jacobs wrote, “the nurse described an inmate coming to the clinic complaining of chest pains and sweating profusely. After running an EKG on the inmate, she said she asked to call an ambulance to take the inmate to a nearby hospital. The guards refused her and returned the inmate to his cell, she said. The inmate died later that night, according to the nurse.

In addition, the nurse described witnessing multiple incidents of officer-on-inmate violence.

"The way the guards treated those inmates was bad. They hadn't been to court or convicted of anything, but the guards did their own sentencing [based on what inmates were brought in for]. They got beat up. That's why I left," says the nurse. "I felt like I was abandoning the inmates."

“When I was at the clinic one day, I saw a guard drop a man on his head from the doctor's table to the floor. His hands were handcuffed behind his back. His head cracked open and he was lying in a pool of blood. The officer picked him up like a UPS package and threw him in a cell. He died on the floor three days after. That was two weeks after I started. I was horrified. I didn't know if I was supposed to report that to someone. I told my nursing supervisor, who did nothing...

“I saw the same guard take a young man about 20 years old and box him in the face several times. His hands were handcuffed behind his back. The young man didn't say anything to that guard. I watched it happen. I felt so sorry. I told my supervisor, 'This is abuse and this has to stop.'

“I saw guards slam inmates up against the steel doors all the time. I saw them making inmates sit for hours chained to a bar waiting to be seen in the clinic.”

The most damning paragraph: “A DOJ report in 2009 found the jail was wildly overcrowded (with twice its rated capacity) and understaffed, which put undue stress on both inmates and officers. The report cited "an inordinately high number of use of force incidents" for the jail and noted that, often, by the time officers began using force, detainees were no longer resisting.”

* * *

We must do something about the Hamilton County jail. We can no longer “kick the can.”

royexum@aol.com

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