Posted on 03/20/2014 8:42:52 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Jerome Murdough was just looking for a warm place to sleep on a chilly night last month when he curled up in an enclosed stairwell on the roof of a Harlem public housing project where he was arrested for trespassing.
A week later, the mentally ill homeless man was found dead in a Rikers Island jail cell that four city officials say had overheated to at least 100 degrees, apparently because of malfunctioning equipment.
The officials told The Associated Press that the 56-year-old former Marine was on anti-psychotic and anti-seizure medication, which may have made him more vulnerable to heat. He also apparently did not open a small vent in his cell, as other inmates did, to let in cool air.
“He basically baked to death,” said one of the officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss specifics of the case. …
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxny.com ...
A good case for a lawyer to say:
Get out the checkbook. Start with a “1” and then start drawing zeroes.
I’ll tell you when to stop.
And in the end, the taxpayers are the ones who pay.
It is definitely the guards' fault that the heating system malfunctioned,since they are also responsible for building maintenance.
Also, since the guards are all medical doctors, they should have been carefully monitoring Mr. Murdough's reaction to a cocktail of anti-psychotic medications.
Mr. Murdough had been carefully looking after his health, I'm sure. There is no chance that a homeless alocholic could have other conditions that contributed to his demise.
Thank you for pointing out that Mr. Murdough and his family should not be thought of as having any kind of personal accountability for their actions in any way.
Only prison guards should carry that burden, no one else.
Believe it or not, most of these facilities have insurance for this. The loss gets spread through the insurance industry.
Some goes back to the taxpayers, some goes to other premises liability payers.
Insurance is private sector socialism.
They were sitting on a lottery ticket and didn't even know it!
I am so proud that the USA has an astronomically higher incarceration rate than any country on Earth, including Russia and China.
The big-government/big-corporate crony-fascist prison/industrial complex is your friend.
According to the city officials, Murdough was locked alone into his 6-by-10 cinderblock cell at about 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, a week after his arrest. Because he was in the mental-observation unit, he was supposed to be checked every 15 minutes as part of suicide watch, they said. But Murdough was not discovered until four hours later, at about 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 15. He was slumped over in his bed and already dead.
When Murdough was found and his cell opened, his internal body temperature and the temperature in the cell were at least 100 degrees. Those temperatures could have been higher before he was discovered because the cell had been closed for several hours, the officials said.
His family allowed him to wander off. They admit that. Clearly blame aplenty to go around. Just as clear is the guards do share some of that.
“When Murdough was found and his cell opened, his internal body temperature and the temperature in the cell were at least 100 degrees. Those temperatures could have been higher before he was discovered because the cell had been closed for several hours, the officials said.”
I’m sorry to hear about the ex marine but a person should have no problem surviving for multiple days in a 100+ degree cell, especially if it has water like most cells do. I dont think it was temp alone.
I see you sarcasm and raise. As a veteran he diserved better.
Given that it only takes a drop of a few degrees of your body temperature is hypothermia1 (bad for you) and that the converse (heating up your body) is likewise bad (103F is a high temperature, 106 is a medical emergency)2 I'd say you're probably dismissing it a little too easily… especially, as written, the cell and body could have been literally boiling (satisfying 'at least').
1 - A normal body temperature is 98.6 °F. A few degrees lower, for example, 95 °F, can be dangerous. It may cause an irregular heartbeat leading to heart problems and death. — nia.nih.gov
2 - Wikipedia Fever
Not so much. It's the same thing when people die in heatwaves. Get the body temperature above about 104 degrees and you've got real trouble.
“...Insurance is private sector socialism...”
No, it’s not. With insurance, you pay, and you get covered. With socialism, you pay, and don’t get covered, and someone else doesn’t pay and does get covered.
The jail drugged him and then roasted him. No prisoner deserves a death like this. His crime? Addiction to booze and mental illness? Can’t we do better?
The moment they put him IN that prison, they became responsible for his safety.
And if he WAS mentally ill, how could he be responsible for himself?
But the moment the state took it upon themselves to forcibly take him into custody, they assumed responsibility for his welfare and safety while under their purview.
I’d like to be the judge on that case, or be on the jury.
And yes, as a Vet, he deserved much better- at the very least some help to combat his mental illness.
He absolutely did.
Of course, how was anyone to know he was a veteran?
Pretty much every homeless drunk on the streets of NYC claims to have been in the service.
His family knew, but they did nothing to help him with his trespassing case.
He took it upon himself to trespass.
"THE STATE" did not set this sequence of events in motion.
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