(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The DOJ Inspector General released a disturbing report Tuesday about a Bureau of Prisons medical doctor’s malpractice, which led to the death of an inmate.
The DOJ-OIG received a complaint that a BOP medical doctor failed to provide adequate medical care to an inmate, who died later that day.
“The medical doctor did not respond in a timely manner to medically assess the inmate, or even make contact with the inmate, after a correctional officer and another inmate alerted the medical doctor that an inmate in the medical isolation cell of the health services unit of the BOP facility was complaining of chest pains,” the DOJ-OIG report found.
The DOJ-OIG has released a disturbing report about a Bureau of Prisons medical doctor who ignored an inmate's chest pains, which led to the inmate dying.
Gordon Kahl suffered two heart attacks when he was a political prisoner in the 70s. He believed the government was trying to… pic.twitter.com/hhxKxNxZGj
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“The OIG investigation also found that the medical doctor deleted without reading an email sent the prior day notifying the medical doctor that an inmate had been placed in the medical isolation cell.”
The Inspector General further found that the doctor “lacked candor” when interviewed for its investigation. However, criminal prosecution of the medical doctor was declined, according to the report.
In February, a DOJ-OIG report revealed that 344 inmate deaths took place in the federal prisons system from 2014 to 2021—at least 12 inmates involving mysterious circumstances.
According to the DOJ-OIG’s report, 187 inmates committed suicide, 89 died by homicide, 56 died by an accident and 12 died from unknown causes.
“In 12 of the 344 deaths (less than 4 percent), there was not sufficient information to definitively determine the manner of death, even after autopsies were conducted in most cases,” the February DOJ-OIG report said. “Accordingly, the manner of these deaths is categorized as ‘Unknown.’”
The Inspector General attributed some of the unknown deaths to drug overdoses, explaining that certain abused substances can cause death but cannot be detected by standard toxicological analytic methods. However, that only explained eight of the unknown deaths, leaving four unexplained.
At the time, the BOP largely blamed staffing shortages and resource constraints.
“Operational challenges include staffing shortages; an outdated security camera system; staff failure to follow BOP policies and procedures; and an ineffective, untimely staff disciplinary process. One or more of these challenges was a contributing factor in many of the inmate deaths in our scope,” the February report said.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
