NDOC: Forty Five (45) Prisoner Deaths in One (1) Year

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. 

This comes from our Informational Bulletin nr 12, 2015:

Forty five people have died in custody in Nevada’s prison facilities since August, 2014. Four committed suicide.

One was shot by a prison guard. One died of cardiovascular disease and the rest are either deaths caused, according to NDOC, by “medical condition”, unknown”, “natural”, or “prolonged illness”. We want to know the causes of death and whether any of these deaths are attributable to the Hepatitis C virus.

This information was provided to NV-CURE by an NPR Senior Producer Joe Schoenmann and former Correctional Officer Mark Clarke, whom we thank for their time and efforts regarding this matter.  We hope that further investigation will reveal the facts regarding each of these
deaths.

Not one noted death is from hepatitis C, even though we know that the prevalence of that disease is much higher than in the population at large and we know that NDOC gives very little treatment for this very treatable disease. Allegedly, many of these deaths are “under investigation”, and NV-CURE finally has volunteers willing to keep track of each death, order the coroner’s report, which is a matter of public record, if necessary, and log the deaths on a spreadsheet, making sure that the media, legislators and the US DOJ are made aware of the high number of deaths due to disease. It is estimated that 12-35% of prisoners nationwide are infected with the Hep C virus. We will never know exactly how many prisoners are infected with the disease, until we have testing, which the Nevada legislature and the NDOC refuse to provide.

NDOC claims that they are investigating the potential of providing hospice care, but we have seen no action yet on that claim.

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. A recording of the program will be posted on our website, Nevaacure.org.  Thank you for your attention to this problem.

[Another!] Nevada inmate dies, at Summerlin Hospital

From Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 13th, 2014, comes this sad news:

"A Nevada inmate died last month at Summerlin Hospital of a medical condition, according to Corrections Department officials.

Officials said they could not locate any next of kin for Denise Leeellen Carlson, 58, who died Oct. 30."

Read more here.

If you are a journalist, please try to find out if there is a lack of medical care, or a reason why so many people in Nevada's prisons die of medical conditions. Thank you.

John Coldwell passed away - read his letter and learn about his care for others!

We learned that John Coldwell passed away on October 2nd, 2014.

John was a member of NV-CURE and a prison activist.  He recently won a case in the 9th Circuit invalidating the NDOC policy of no cataract surgery for a person blind in only one eye. He will be missed.

Please read this letter from earlier this year received by NV-CURE from John Coldwell.  This letter reflects the type of person John Colwell was to us.  Thank you for reading it.

Newsitem from Kolotv

A 67-year-old prisoner at Desert State Prison in Indian Springs has died.

Nevada Department of Corrections has confirmed that inmate John Colwell, NDOC #33742, died of a chronic medical condition at the High Desert State Prison. Read more here.

Officials investigate inmate death at Ely State Prison

Another man dies this week in a Nevada prison.  How many this year?  How many died from lack of medical care?

From: LV Sun, Jan. 29th, 2014:
By Ana Ley

State corrections officials are investigating the death of an Ely State Prison inmate who was found unconscious inside his cell earlier this week.

Paul Skinner, 53, was discovered by prison staff on Tuesday. Medical personnel unsuccessfully tried to revive Skinner until paramedics rushed him to the William Bee Ririe Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Read the rest here.

Carson City prisoner is fifth Nevada inmate to die since November

From: News3
Dec 19th 2013

CARSON CITY, Nev. (Las Vegas Sun) -- A prison inmate serving time for second-degree murder has died at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, the fifth inmate death in the Nevada Department of Corrections system since November.

Michael Johnson was in the medical center at the Carson City prison when he died Wednesday.

The state Department of Corrections said Thursday that Johnson, 55, had been in prison since 2008 and was serving a sentence of 10 years to life out of Churchill County.

The Clark County Coroner’s Office will conduct an autopsy.

Johnson is the fifth Nevada prison inmate to die since early November.

Read more here.

Corrections department flouts new law requiring autopsies for inmates who die in custody

In: Las Vegas Sun, Dec. 16, 2013

By: Ana Ley

More than two months after prison inmate Richard Ferst’s corpse was discovered inside a cell at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, it remains unexamined inside a cold chamber at a funeral home in Carson City.

Ferst’s mother, Sandy Morningstar of Las Vegas, hopes preserving the body will help reveal how her son died — something prison officials haven't explained.

Following her son's wishes, Morningstar wants to scatter Ferst’s ashes into the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach, Calif., where he grew up. It was Ferst's favorite place.

“Because of their screwing around, my son is still in a refrigerator,” Morningstar said. “It's maddening.”
Ferst is one of four state prison inmates who died in October at the same facility under the care of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Officials never said whether a death investigation was requested in the cases. Three other prisoners have since died at other facilities, and autopsies revealed a cause and manner of death for two of them.

Relatives and civil rights advocates say they have grown increasingly frustrated by the prison system's lack of urgency in determining why some of the men died.

The Nevada Department of Corrections did not request a postmortem examination for Ferst after he died Oct. 5, even though a new state law, effective June 2, requires department officials to do so for any inmate who dies under prison care. The law was openly endorsed earlier this year by prisons director Greg Cox, who did not respond to requests for comment via the department's public information office.


Read the rest here.

More news about the recent deaths in custody from Las Vegas Sun:

• Questions mount as state prison officials refuse to divulge causes in October deaths of four inmates
• Another Nevada prison inmate dies, the second in as many days

Nevada inmate dies at Las Vegas hospital

From: MyNews3, Dec. 18th 2013

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada inmate serving a life sentence has died at a Las Vegas hospital.
The Department of Corrections says 59-year-old John D. Jennings died Wednesday at Valley Hospital where he was being treated for a medical condition. No foul play is suspected. Prison officials say an autopsy will be conducted.

Read the rest here.

Nevada prison inmate dies in Las Vegas days after apparent suicide attempt in cell in Ely

This man had been in prison for 27 years, according to this article. He was 17-years-old when he went to prison.
From: The Republic

Nevada prison inmate dies in Las Vegas days after apparent suicide attempt in cell in Ely

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Updated: January 26, 2012

LAS VEGAS — Authorities say a 44-year-old Nevada prison inmate has died at a Las Vegas hospital, days after he was found unconscious with a bed sheet around his neck in his cell in Ely.

The Clark County coroner said Thursday that William Ellis Jenckes Jr. was pronounced dead early Tuesday at University Medical Center. A cause of death is pending the results of blood toxicology tests.

State prisons spokesman Steve Suwe (SOO-ee) says Jenckes was found alone in his cell Jan. 15 and taken to a hospital in Ely before he was flown by medical helicopter about 250 miles to Las Vegas.

Jenckes was serving 20 years to life in prison on a murder with deadly weapon conviction in Clark County. He had been sentenced in December 1985.