Black woman dies of thirst after she was dragged out of SC hospital to jail over unpaid court fines
Travis Gettys TRAVIS GETTYS
25 FEB 2016 AT 11:33 ET
A South Carolina woman died 27 hours after she was hauled out of a hospital and taken to jail over unpaid court fines — and her family said she was denied water and medical care.
Joyce Curnell was found dead in her cell July 22, one day after she was arrested at Roper Hospital, where she had been treated for a stomach illness, and taken to the Charleston County Jail, reported The Post and Courier.
The 50-year-old Curnell became too ill to eat or call for help, according to court documents filed this week as part of a planned lawsuit.
Curnell had been taken by ambulance to Roper Hospital from her Edisto Island home after complaining of nausea and vomiting, and she was diagnosed with gastroenteritis in the emergency room.
A bench warrant was discovered at some point during her hospital stay, and someone alerted law enforcement officers.
Curnell had been placed on a payment plan in April 2012 to pay $1,148.90 in fines related to a shoplifting case, but she apparently quit paying the following January and a warrant was issued in August 2014.
The newspaper reported Thursday afternoon that Curnell’s son, who is planning the lawsuit, notified law enforcement of the open warrant.
However, the newspaper did not report whether Javon Curnell was asked about his mother’s criminal background — or why.
A local doctor told Curnell’s family that her death could likely have been prevented if she had been properly treated for dehydration and the irritation of her stomach and intestines.
“Simply put: Ms. Curnell died because she was deprived of water,” said Dr. Maria Gibson, of Medical University Hospital.
Her family filed a notice to sue the jail’s medical contractor, Carolina Center for Occupational Health, for malpractice — claiming medical staffers ignored requests by jail officials to help Curnell.
Court documents show Curnell was placed in a housing unit, instead of being taken to the jail’s medical facility, and she was given a trash bag to vomit into because she was too weak to visit the restroom.
No records show Curnell was given water or intravenous fluids the following morning, when she was too ill to eat breakfast.
State law requires medical care for inmates who need it, and the Bill of Rights demands humane treatment of incarcerated prisoners.
“It is very unfortunate to hear of another death of an African-American while in police custody,” said Shaundra Scott, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. “If Ms. Curnell was denied medical treatment, then it is our position that her constitutional rights were violated.”
This is a really silly question, but aren't American prisons obligated to I don't know, get medical attention for their prisoners, even if that means hospitalisation, especially since she was taken from hospital. If her gastroenteritis was so bad that she could not keep food or fluid down, then she needs IV hydration so she doesn't become dehydrated.
In Australia I have seen prisoners in the hospital accompanied by security guards. They are chained so they cannot escape but they are definitely treated. This case smacks of negligence to me.
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Yes, they are; see the second-to-last paragraph of the article. It also looks like this is on the medical contractor, not the jail per se, which is at least a new spin on this kind of story. It ought to be a fairly open-and-shut case, assuming the article is accurate.
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Absolutely prisons are required to provide all necessary medical care to prisoners. In fact, prisoners arguably have more access to medical care than the non-criminal in the US.
The problem, of course, is prison staff that fail to live up to their legal obligations.
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Esquire wrote:Yes, they are; see the second-to-last paragraph of the article. It also looks like this is on the medical contractor, not the jail per se, which is at least a new spin on this kind of story. It ought to be a fairly open-and-shut case, assuming the article is accurate.
Honestly (and I am requesting the input of any lawyers), I dont just see a lawsuit. I see involuntary manslaughter charges for anyone in that facility who had a duty of care and did not intervene to save her life. She was brought in from a hospital too weak to feed herself, vomiting up anything put in her stomach. As her condition worsened (and she was too weak to eat breakfast the next day) she should have been TAKEN to hospital. Hell, she should not have been removed from hospital in the first place. So the arresting officers are fucking guilty, so are the guards supervising her (who made the requests to the contractor and let the non-action on their part go without intervention), to say nothing of contractor employees who made the decision to do nothing (a doctor who never got the message is of course immune).
The only reason why this would not be the case is if the statute is not typically applied with a net that god damned wide.
With regard to the crime of involuntary manslaughter, criminal negligence is defined as the reckless disregard of the safety of others. A person charged with the crime of involuntary manslaughter may be convicted only upon a showing of criminal negligence as defined in this section. A person convicted of involuntary manslaughter must be imprisoned not more than five years.
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Broomstick wrote:Absolutely prisons are required to provide all necessary medical care to prisoners. In fact, prisoners arguably have more access to medical care than the non-criminal in the US.
The problem, of course, is prison staff that fail to live up to their legal obligations.
/sarcasm
but why would they care about subhumans? after all if they are criminals they must be
/sarcasm off
I see this reaction routinely in people who work in corrections, though by no means does it mean all or even most have this perception.
Broomstick wrote:Absolutely prisons are required to provide all necessary medical care to prisoners. In fact, prisoners arguably have more access to medical care than the non-criminal in the US.
The problem, of course, is prison staff that fail to live up to their legal obligations.
The bigger problem is that once you're in jail people tend to stop viewing you as a person.
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Don't discount the class and race factors - a white middle-class soccer mom locked up in jail for a similar amount of debt would probably be treated differently/better.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Don't discount the class and race factors - a white middle-class soccer mom locked up in jail for a similar amount of debt would probably be treated differently/better.
Esquire wrote:Yes, they are; see the second-to-last paragraph of the article. It also looks like this is on the medical contractor, not the jail per se, which is at least a new spin on this kind of story. It ought to be a fairly open-and-shut case, assuming the article is accurate.
Honestly (and I am requesting the input of any lawyers), I dont just see a lawsuit. I see involuntary manslaughter charges for anyone in that facility who had a duty of care and did not intervene to save her life. She was brought in from a hospital too weak to feed herself, vomiting up anything put in her stomach. As her condition worsened (and she was too weak to eat breakfast the next day) she should have been TAKEN to hospital. Hell, she should not have been removed from hospital in the first place. So the arresting officers are fucking guilty, so are the guards supervising her (who made the requests to the contractor and let the non-action on their part go without intervention), to say nothing of contractor employees who made the decision to do nothing (a doctor who never got the message is of course immune).
The only reason why this would not be the case is if the statute is not typically applied with a net that god damned wide.
With regard to the crime of involuntary manslaughter, criminal negligence is defined as the reckless disregard of the safety of others. A person charged with the crime of involuntary manslaughter may be convicted only upon a showing of criminal negligence as defined in this section. A person convicted of involuntary manslaughter must be imprisoned not more than five years.
even if only half of what is said in the article is true, I would agree with you, this is serious negligence. But I don't see the police removing anyone from medical care against medical advice or before they were released by a doctor. If they did, they really fucked up. But if she was cleared by a doctor to go home and was picked up and her condition worsened after arriving at the county jail, the person(s) that brought her to the jail do not have anymore contact with or control over her once she is in there and should not be charged in that instance.
short of her denying treatment, someone really should be in plenty of hot water... lots of someones probably.
