“Man Down!” How a poorly trained staff at the D.C. Jail let an inmate die.
VIDEO: View the security camera footage
RELATED LINKS: Thomas Jones' Letters Home
DOCUMENTS
Read the correspondence between Jones' family attorney and the DOC. (PDF)
The D.C. jail's regulations on CPR training and emergency services. (PDF)
Jones Drives for Layup
Thomas Jones’ jump shot is no longer a thing of beauty. Watching him hoist the ball up and over his shoulders, two-handed, he looks like a forklift, the ball heavy in his hands.Jones and another inmate had agreed to play a little one-on-one in the small indoor gym located just past the day room in Northwest-2 unit of the D.C. Jail. His opponent, Derrick Jones, would later tell officials they played three games. The first game went to 20. The next two went to 16.
It was Jan. 20, 2005, sometime after 9 p.m. Thomas Jones was 28. A fixed security camera takes in their game with a fuzzy, neutral eye on a recording obtained by Washington City Paper.
In the heat of the gym, both men eventually shrug off their orange jumpsuits. Derrick Jones opts to play in shorts and an undershirt. Thomas Jones will strip down to his boxers and T-shirt. Inmates stand around watching. A few sit on the floor. A guard pokes his head inside, says nothing, then wanders away.
The gym, divided by three blue-gray lines, is less than the size of a half court and features an unforgiving backboard. The two go easy on defense, playing winner’s outs and a no-take-back rule on missed shots.
A few plays in Jones is still shaking off the rust. He is 2 feet from the basket; he shouldn’t miss, but the ball hits the front of the rim and bounces right back. But before long he finds his way, gets streaky with his jump shot, and appears to win the first game.
Jones learned to play ball at the Randle Highlands Elementary School courts, around the corner from his home at 1604 29th St. SE. His brother recalls that he was a jump-shot guy. At 6-foot-1, 220 lbs., 10 feet out was where he played best, where he felt comfortable.
Now, three minutes into the video, he stops and rests his hands atop his head and doesn’t seem to mind that his opponent has gotten streaky with his shot, too.
At nine-and-a-half minutes in, he squats down, clutching the ball in his hands as if he’s praying with it. He is 3 feet from the basket. He holds the ball just for a few seconds. Later, after another play, you can see Jones smiling through his bushy beard. He’s keeping the score close, maybe even winning. He starts to dribble behind his back and show off his stutter step; his jumpers consistently swish.
But if you know what’s coming, you start counting how many times Jones rests, squatting with the ball. He’s up to at least a half-dozen breaks. He’s still making shots.
And then there’s just one more play.
Jones appears to wobble as he hands the ball back to his opponent. Derrick Jones dribbles out, way out to the entrance of the gym and fires a long ball. It goes in.
Jones gathers the ball and squats down against it.
An officer is chatting up a captain in the adjacent day room. Another officer is posted upstairs along a tier of cells. He will later admit he had only a partial view of the gym and didn’t see anything. The officer-in-charge of the unit is manning the “bubble,” or control room. He will later admit he was not watching the security feed from the gym at the time.
Derrick Jones was the only one who witnessed what happens next.
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Jones Collapses
Jones tries to stand up, stumbles about two steps backward, and then flops back, collapsing onto his back. The basketball dribbles away aimlessly.Jones’ arms fall above his head. His chest heaves in violent hiccups. Derrick Jones comes to his side and asks: “Man, are you all right?” He calls out for help, pointing at his friend. Later an inmate remembers the sound of Jones’ arm dropping against the floor.
Thomas Jones, a father and a brother, stops being Thomas Jones. He has become a jail cliché: “man down.” Jones took a complicated route to incarceration at the D.C. Jail. A raft of charges dating back to December 2003 led first to an extended stay at a halfway house. After catching a charge for escaping from the halfway house, he ended up in the jail in early October 2004. The following month, Jones pleaded guilty to the escape charge and simple assault, for crashing into a police car. .
The day before the game—Jan. 19—he stood before Superior Court Judge Lynn Leibovitz ready to receive his sentence. He thought he’d get time served and would be released that afternoon. He thought the embarrassment was punishment enough. He’d hit the cop car while on drugs. His brother and mother say he apologized to them profusely. I’m not that crazy. I was high, he told them.
The time inside, waiting for his sentencing, had been difficult. Jones told his mother he wasn’t thug enough to tolerate his sometimes squalid living conditions. “It smells like do do in here,” he wrote. “The cell [toilet] beside me keep overflowing. I’m in cell 70 and 68 and 69 cells keep flooding over and over do do and pee being in my cell. I keep telling them to move me but they keep ignoring me.”
Leibovitz sentenced him to 16 months. There was nothing Jones could do but smile at his family in the courtroom and then return to Northwest-2.
Now he was on the floor, his body twitching with each pang from his chest.
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Officer Arrives at Scene
In this frame is Cpl. Elijah E. Daniels Jr., the first officer on the scene.Daniels hovers over Jones for a second, turns around, and appears to be calling out to an unseen officer just beyond the gym’s entrance. He turns around and again looks down at Jones, now motionless. He then stares up at Derrick Jones, then back at Thomas Jones on the gym floor.
In a deposition about this incident, Daniels recalls Jones’ eyes were open. At one point, Jones is shown raising his right arm and brushing Daniels’ hand. Daniels appears to pull back and look for other officers to help.
Daniels says that’s all he believed he could do. He hadn’t been trained in CPR since the ’90s, when he was working in Lorton. Jail regulations require all corrections officers to be trained in emergency procedures, CPR, and first aid every year. They are also required to take “immediate life saving measures” until the medical staff arrive.
Daniels doesn’t bend down to Thomas Jones’ side and check to see if he’s breathing. “That called for close examination,” he stated. “And I’m not certified to do that.”
Nor did Daniels check Jones’ pulse. In his deposition, he explained his reasons: “You had to be a qualified medical person to be feeling for pulses.”
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More Officers Show Up
Daniels just waits out the uncomfortable moment. Cpl. Dennis Stevenson and Capt. Nora Talley enter the gym. Stevenson walks straight to Jones’ side. Stevenson, according to his deposition, tells Daniels: “I got this.”Stevenson remembers Derrick Jones speaking up, offering his own medical assessment of the limp inmate on the floor: “He’s having a fit. He’s having a fit.”
Stevenson kneels down and inspects Jones’ mouth. He takes out a set of latex gloves from the first-aid pouch clipped to his belt and puts them on.
Daniels still peers at Jones as if he’s a science experiment. Stevenson then jars Jones’ mouth. He thinks the inmate is having a seizure, although he admits in his deposition that he’s had no formal training in identifying seizures. He says he saw a man convulse in a cell block once. About Jones, he explains: “This man was down and shaking.”
Daniels stands over Jones while Stevenson keeps the inmate’s mouth open.
Daniels can be seen motioning for Jones to be positioned on his side. He then yanks Jones’ right arm with enough force to move the inmate. Stevenson makes sure to keep Jones’ mouth open.
“All I’m getting is moans and groans,” Stevenson recalls. “That’s unresponsive. His body was responding, biting down on his teeth, on my finger, but he wasn’t responsive. I got nothing from him.”
The officer knew Jones. “Jones was a quiet guy,” Stevenson says. “He was basically a loner. He liked TV, checkers, and he was a little bit of a joker. He liked to tell little jokes every now and then. He just was kind of a laid-back cat.…A person like that sometimes can be a breath of fresh air because he wasn’t no problem in there the whole time I knew him.”
Jones didn’t normally hang out in the gym, he says. “I saw that kid in there maybe three times trying to play ball, but not with the rough ones.”
By the time Daniels gets Jones on his side, the inmate has urinated on himself. A pool spreads on the gym floor. Derrick Jones holds Thomas Jones’ arm and shoulder. “I didn’t do a damn thing for him,” he says in a recent interview.
Stevenson places his thumb in Jones’ mouth. He concedes that he did not check Jones’ pulse. “No, I had to treat for what I saw: a person having a seizure. The medical staff, they do that.”
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Standing Around
Capt. Talley had already made a call to the infirmary.Officer Grovetta Steatean was posted in the infirmary that night. She states in her deposition that she normally worked in a different unit but was transferred to the infirmary after an officer failed to show up. Her assignment that night is “sick call officer”; she’s seated right in front of the nurses station.
In her deposition, Steatean says she believes she took the call on her radio, reporting it in the infirmary logbook at 9:56 p.m. The message was simple but vague: “medical needed at Northwest 2 ASAP.”
Steatean believes it was a captain on the other end. After taking the call, she recalls in her deposition that she yelled out the message to the medical staff.
None of the medical staff answer her shouting. Steatean notes in her logbook and states later that the staff “had the radio playing in the back.…They were playing music....I can’t say whether they heard me.”
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Officer Makes Cell-Phone Call
They are waiting, unsure of what to do with the man on the floor.Daniels, Stevenson, and Talley are joined by Sgt. Angelo Logan, who had heard about Jones while in another unit and decided to wander over.
Daniels puts on his rubber gloves. He still doesn’t touch Jones, beyond yanking his arm to move him to his side. Logan wanders over to stare at Jones, then joins Talley in a conversation. At times, they have their backs to the man on the floor. Stevenson still has his thumb in Jones’ mouth. The other inmate is still sitting there.
Jones doesn’t appear to be moving..
“Are you all right?” Stevenson remembers Daniels asking him. “You got him?”
“I’m all right,” Stevenson says he replied. Stevenson thinks he felt a pulse from Jones, though he fails to note this in his report.
More inmates wander in for a look. Daniels appears to order them out. He then leaves the gym, still wearing his rubber gloves.
During this time, Capt. Talley makes a call on her government-issue cell phone.
And then another.
And then another.
“The COs were acting like they didn’t know what to do,” recalls Norman Poteat, a former inmate who was in the unit at that time. Another former inmate who was there says that “during the entire process, the COs were coming from other units, and they just were standing, watching with us.” Both inmates shared their recollections in letters to Washington City Paper.
In his deposition, Sgt. Raul Rivero says he called the infirmary from inside the Northwest-2 bubble and told a nurse: “Look. We need you. We got a man having a seizure.”
Rivero said another officer told him Jones was having a seizure. He says he’s had no training in identifying the signs and symptoms of seizures or cardiac arrest. Nor has he been certified in basic lifesaving or first-aid techniques. “I don’t know what you are talking about, but I’m telling you I have not had that type of training,” he says.
Eventually Rivero says he, too, called the infirmary again. It had been about seven minutes since his first call. “I said, ‘We are waiting. There is a man down.’ ” The infirmary staffer told him: “We are going down.”
On this particular shift, Talley is the highest-ranking official on duty. In her deposition, she says she made two calls to the infirmary to get them to respond to Jones.
Eventually, Talley and Logan step away from Jones and have a conversation. At two points during their talk, Talley appears to be laughing.
Were the guards getting nervous? “I prefer not to comment on that,” says one officer who was in the gym that night. “I don’t want to jeopardize the agency.”
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Jones is Loaded onto Gurney as Officer Makes Another Call
When the medics still haven’t arrived, Talley gets on the phone again. In that night’s shift report, the entry reads: “10:10 p.m. Capt. Talley notified Command Center that there’s a medical emergency in NW-2. Inmate Jones.…Medical Nurse Vincent was instructed to report to NW-2.”There’s a clear discrepancy about who showed up when.
At 10:16, the shift report records that Talley ordered all movement to the infirmary stopped. In her deposition, she explains that she made the order because Jones had just left the gym and was being rushed to the infirmary.
Later, Talley would sign off on these log entries.
But in her written account of what happened that night, she disputes them. In her deposition, Talley records the time of the emergency at approximately 9:57 p.m. and the medics’ arrival at 10:05 p.m. She says these are the times that are correct because she wrote them down on a “scrap of paper that I may have had in my pocket” so that she would have it handy when she wrote the report. She could not produce the piece of paper.
Daniels also recorded in his unit’s logbook that the medical staff were called at 9:57 p.m. and arrive at 10:05 p.m. He fails to note that he recorded this after the incident.
When asked to explain the accuracy of this account, Daniels replies in his deposition: “I look at my watch quite often.…I look at my watch a lot.…When someone calls my attention to something, I look at my watch, because I may at any given time be required to write an accurate, precise report.”
In their unit’s own logbook, where the COs have to record every event from the mundane to the out of the ordinary, there is another item concerning the timeline. Under “late entry,” the officer in charge of the unit, Rivero writes he first heard of the medical emergency in the gym at 9:50 p.m. and that medical staff arrived at 10:05 p.m. Two other officers back up Rivero’s account in their written statements and depositions.
When asked about the discrepancy between his account and the accounts of Daniels and Talley, Rivero states in his deposition: “Something might be wrong in this case.”
The jail’s regulations stipulate the maximum response time between the emergency call and medical personnel’s arrival is four minutes. The government’s lawyers argue in court records that it takes nine minutes to respond to Jones.
When a doctor and nurse finally appear, they are not carrying a portable defibrillator machine, nor do they perform CPR while Jones is lying on the gym floor.
A nurse waves an ammonia capsule under Jones’ nose.
A doctor checks Jones’ pulse.
Stevenson still has his thumb in Jones’ mouth.
According to medical records, the doctor finds Jones unresponsive and without a pulse.
“Step out of the way,” Stevenson recalls someone telling him. “We’re going to move him on the gurney.”
Stevenson, Derrick Jones, and another inmate grab different parts of Jones and jerk him onto the gurney brought in by the medical staff. They strain to turn him face up, and the doctor helps place Jones’ hands at his waist before starting to wheel him away.
Derrick Jones retrieves the lifeless inmate’s orange jumpsuit and hands it to the doctor. The doctor plops it onto the gurney, partially covering Jones’ head, and Jones finally leaves the gym.
“We started to curse out the medical staff as well as the COs. That could have been one of us,” former inmate Damion Bannister writes in a letter about the incident. The COs’ seemed to take it “for a game,” he says, “then they realize that it was serious and failed to perform CPR.…So all they kept saying is wait for medical. But medical responded too slow.”
In their reports of the incident, the medical staff describe their response as “immediate” and report that CPR was conducted on the way to the infirmary.
Talley, in her own report, does not mention whether CPR was performed on Jones immediately following his exit from the gym.
“The only treatment I saw when the man left the gym, the doc was doing something on the gurney near where they were taking him out,” Stevenson said. “It could have been CPR. I don’t know what he was doing, but he was doing something.”
The jail has cameras that would have recorded what if any treatment Jones received after exiting the gym. The corrections department declined to make them available. A spokesperson said doing so would “breach the security” of the jail.
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Staff Wheels Jones Out, Blocks Gym Entrance with Police Tape
In the days leading up to Jones’ collapse, the guards had plenty of practice in medical emergencies. From Jan. 1 to Jan. 19, 2005, there were 14 instances in the logbook where an inmate didn’t receive prompt medical attention or was not given meds on time.• On Jan. 5, at 12:35 a.m., an inmate had an officer call the infirmary after he started having chest pains. The infirmary told the officer to “Call the unit when they were not so busy.”
• On Jan. 14, at 11 p.m., an inmate complained of a sore throat and chest pain “where a Bullet is.” The nurse at the infirmary told the officer on the phone that the inmate needed to fill out a sick-call slip.
• On Jan. 18, at 5:15 p.m., an inmate came forward with “massive pains from two (2) boils.” Another inmate “complained of drastic cold congestion & having chills.” Again, the nurse at the infirmary instructed the officer to have them sign up for sick call. More than an hour later, the inmate with the boils was “still complaining of the discomfort.” The officer noted in the logbook that the day shift would be informed. There was no expectation that the inmate with the boils would be seen for the next six to eight hours.
It is unclear whether a working first-aid kit or functioning thermometer would have helped these inmates or the others who complained of a cut finger, a sore hand, or more chest pains. But in those first 19 days in January, the first-aid kit was compromised or “unsealed” 16 times and the thermometer was listed as busted 15 times. The kit and thermometer were also listed as broken or unsealed hours before Jones collapsed. Rivero stated in his deposition that the equipment would have remained broken because the infirmary often balked at fixing these items: “It was not done. I’m telling you now.”
But none of the above inmates, according to the logbook, died from their wounds. They suffered through the endless sick calls, the long waits, and not knowing whether to worry about coughing up blood. The guards just waited with them, ignoring their own regulations and recording the inmates’ misery in the book.
On Jan. 20, that wasn’t good enough for the inmate who died.
Once he finally arrived at the infirmary, Jones was successfully intubated and had “chest expansion” but still no cardiac activity, medical records show. Officer Steatean, who was stationed at the infirmary and could observe medics working on Jones, says she did not see a defibrillator used. A nurse reported in her records, however, that one was used at some point.
At 10:24 p.m., paramedics arrived at the D.C. Jail, according to Department of Corrections (DOC) records.
Eighteen minutes later, Jones was transported to Howard University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. In the hospital’s records, doctors noted prominently that Jones had been down for more than an hour before he arrived at Howard.
An autopsy by the medical examiner revealed the cause of death as cardiac arrest. There was no evidence that he had a seizure.
Before this incident, Jones had been used to the slow response to medical problems. He had complained of a toothache for months before it was fixed. The same went for old injuries on his arm. His mother says she ended up calling the jail about a dozen times to complain.
His former fellow inmates knew Jones as a guy who always talked about his family. He had a daughter, and he cared for a boy as if he were his own. He wrote and called his family often, lamenting the jail’s conditions and despondent about all the time he was missing with them. But mostly he just counted the days he had left before he could return home.
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His 6-year-old daughter Jamie recalls the last of their telephone calls. “I said, ‘When are you coming home?’…I don’t remember what he said. I think three weeks or five weeks, he said. Do you know when he said he was coming home?”
All of the officers who responded to Jones in the gym wrote up “significant incident/extraordinary occurrences” reports. Sgt. Logan took pictures of the gym. Stevenson described sticking his thumb in Jones’ mouth. By the time Daniels wrote up his report, he had given Jones a diagnosis of “Gran Mal seizure.”
And then the incident simply slipped into memory. Those who were there had other things to deal with. They had to take the next count, schedule showers, record the number of food trays going into and out of cells.
Stevenson was mystified that no one spoke to him about the incident, that people seemed to even shun him. He thought he did good that day and deserved some recognition: “They treated me like I had the measles. No one said nothing. No one never said ‘Thank you’ to me.”
Douglas Sparks, Jones’ family attorney, filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Feb. 2, 2005, for “all materials and documents” surrounding Jones’ death. The department claimed that the incident was under investigation by its internal affairs office and delayed fulfilling his request. Jail officials waited a year and a half before turning over the gym video to Sparks.
In her deposition before Sparks, Wanda Patten, head of internal affairs, stated that no such investigation ever took place regarding Jones’ death. None of the officers stated in their depositions that they had been questioned by anyone following the inmate’s death.
If the DOC had bothered to ask questions about what happened that night in the gym, it would have found that the officers ignored emergency procedures from the moment Jones fell to the floor.
When Jones was found in the gym, Talley called the infirmary. Jail regulations stipulate that the “employee making the call shall give all necessary information to the nurse or physician.” Talley admitted in deposition that she did not speak to a nurse or physician. Nor did she relay any description of Jones.
After another officer—Rivero— incorrectly told the infirmary that Jones was having a seizure, the medics, at least at first, were simply not able to grasp the urgency of the situation. Although their required maximum response time is four minutes, they arrived in roughly double that time. When they finally got to the gym, they did not bring a portable defibrillator, several of which are located in the infirmary and throughout the jail.
Like the medics, COs are subject to four-minute respond-and-assist requirements. But while the officers waited for the medics, they failed to follow the regulations concerning CPR and basic lifesaving techniques: “The assigned officers are to take immediate life-saving measures as required through CPR training until medical staff arrives and relieves them.”
All of the officers at that time were required to be trained every year in CPR and basic life support. None of them had been. DOC documents showed that Stevenson signed up for a CPR/first-aid class in 2003, but there is no record of him being certified, nor was the instructor listed on the sign-up sheet.
In 2005, only 22, or 2.9 percent, of COs received CPR and first-aid training, according to DOC spokesperson Beverly Young.
Since then, Young says, the department has made a concerted effort in getting its officers CPR training. About 83 percent, or 540 officers, were trained in 2006. Young says that every officer who has taken the course has passed, although they have yet to be officially certified.
Nila Ritenour, head of the officers’ union, says the course is “like being certified to baby-sit” and doesn’t address the complexities of a jail setting, including what to do if an inmate is found hanging. Nor does it go into detail on how to handle seizures.
“It’s supposed to be mandatory,” Ritenour says. “They only do what they have to do. Just like CPR. They try to get people through.…I can’t see an officer saving an inmate.”
It is not apparent that Stevenson, Daniels, or Talley either received such training or retained it. In their depositions taken this year, they all showed rudimentary or no knowledge of proper CPR and basic life support.
Daniels gave his definition of CPR: “If you’re laid out there, well, what I can remember is you look at the person, see if they’re breathing or not. Shake them, talk to them. If they’re unresponsive, then you initiate CPR if you are so certified and trained.”
Stevenson conceded that he’s had no training in recognizing the signs and symptoms of cardiac arrest. He did not know what a defibrillator was: “That’s the big bulb where you assist people to breathe. Yeah, I know what that is.”
To which Sparks replied: “It’s actually an electrical shocking device for cardiac.”
“Not that, no,” Stevenson stated. He later said he had no training on the machine and hadn’t seen one in the jail.
In her deposition taken this past February, Talley was asked specific questions about CPR before finally admitting: “I probably need a refresher course….It’s been a while since I had [training].”
In a motion filed in Superior Court in August 2006, the government’s lawyers argued that the videotape showed that “guards come in and CPR is performed.”
Jun. 29 - Jul. 5, 2007 (Vol. 27, #26)
Comments
9:57 pm
Good chronology. It pretty well shows there are more criminals in the jails than just the inmates.
11:26 pm
Sounds like the LA latina they let die. If the jail didn't have video cameras, the public likely would never know that supposedly trained personnel stand by and watch people die here, too. Sickening.
12:15 pm
Speechless. The DOC needs to make more than a "concerted effort" at training its officers. Moreover medical personnel need to significantly more proactive in addressing the needs of inmates not to mention sharing their lives.
3:33 pm
The video is the most shocking part. I can't believe how those officers just stood around. It's so clear they have no idea what they should be doing. Horrible.
3:43 pm
Did this person have a medical condition before he came to prison? Did he have a heart condition that he did not tell them when he arrived? That would have at least assured that he would be in a medical cell instead of in general population.
10:15 pm
Ok MR Kevin T, medical cell,whatever. As a native to this city, Everyone who's live here long enough knows this has been an on going problem at DC jail. The facility itself as a whole needs to be under investigation for the inhumane conditions the inmates are exposed to on a daily basis. If you've ever been detained or had a friend or family member detained there, (Which is common if your a black american in this city) its common knowledge that the conditions at DC jail are the worst. Anytime the average inmate can't wait to be transfered to a federal facility because of the conditions, then you know theres a problem. They barely feed them, its beyond overcrowed, its extremely unsanitary, its freezing in the winter and rediculously hot in the summer. How can you expect the guards to act responsibly, when I guarantee that if DOD did a surprise random drug and alcohol test, the majority of them would fail. Its a well known fact in the inner city that most of the guards there know alot of the inmates through outside drug transactions. Most of them are crack heads and dope fiends. Why do you think that everything listed as contraband, from cigarettes to drugs and weapons gets into the jail. They would have you believe that it comes from outside visitation. Everyone knows that you cant get anything in the jail through the visiting hall, visits are behind the glass and have no contact. What about the inmates who escaped a few months ago. Most of the wrong doing in the jail is aided by the guards. Most of them are criminals that havent been caught yet. You could try to blame this incident on the fact that the Hospital across the parking lot has been closed, but everyone is aware that when DC General was open conditions were not any better. The system as a whole in this great capitol city of the world needs to be addressed. The treatment of the inner city population (which makes up most of the population) needs to be addressed as a whole. From the jails, to health care to jobs. Eventhough on the surface DC has gotten a lovely face lift, but it still has the same ugly soul. I bet if it had been a congressmans nephew they would have done everything to save him. Oh my bad, had it have been a congressmans nephew he would have never been in DC Jail and definately not in general population!!!!!
10:56 pm
Kevin T, you're either very naive or a DOC plant. FYI, the man had a thorough physical at the jail, he had no medical condition that was hidden from anyone (did you read the medical examiner's conclusions?), and the terminal event simply was having the misfortune of experiencing a medical emergency at the jail. Which wouldn't have been fatal if staff didn't stand around clueless.
12:34 am
Who I am is of no concern to you or anyone. I have a right to express my opinion, and I will continue to do so. First of all, the DC Jail is not over crowded, the air conditioning works and the vast majority of the employees , like every other district government agency are hard working, and are not crack heads or dope fiends. I do my homework before I come on forums like this. What happened to this man was a tragedy, but do your homework before you speak.
9:25 am
"the vast majority of the employees , like every other district government agency are hard working"
- Wins a prize for most delusional and misleading comment so far. The guards in that video simply didn't care enough to put themselves out there and try to save that man. La la la- saving this man is someone else's job La la la- I made a phone call, I guess I'll just stand around and wait while he dies.
That's criminal negligence.
10:27 am
Yep, Kevin T, you're definitely a plant......just gave yourself away. Possibly naive also. But I do agree that many DC employees (including at the DOC), are decent people. Even most of the ones in the video. They've just not been trained, are underpaid, and the jail is understaffed. And so the guy was allowed to die. As for the "jail is not overcrowded", why don't you ask any CO or anyone who has spent the night at the jail about that one. You're in denial.
11:22 am
That is some despicable shit.
Yeah, I know, the life of a CO is filled with stress and convicts running games and scams and being verbally assaulted, lied to, and physical confrontations are the norm.
But that's the gig you CHOSE. So either do the gig or find another line of business. Letting a man die like that is inexcusable...
11:44 am
Kevin T, answer these questions:
Do you work for DOC?
Are you a republican?
Have you ever been incarcerated?
I find it interesting that you think that inmates get 'assurances'. I find it even more interesting that you believe that DC Jail is NOT overcrowded. I'd like to know what homework you did to form these opinions? Because ever article I've ever read about DC Jail is consistent with the claims made in this article as well as by other posters. It has deplorable conditions and that cannot be disputed.
All you have to do is google DC Jail article and it's right there in black and white.
12:13 pm
It makes no sense that a "professional" officer, whose responsibility is to care for the inmates, allowed this to occur. All staff on duty should be held responsible for this unneccessary death.
Moreover, the warden for that facility should be fired and the city should be sued for allowing this to occur with such a high level of incompetence!
1:05 pm
I am a former correctional officer in new mexico; I wasn't trined either but one has common sense in emergency situations and you push the buttons and get the darn ball rolling in order possibly save a life..What a calamity of errors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7:19 pm
This made me cry..... No mater what the crime is or who the person is, no one should just be left on the cold floor to just die... How can the officers claim that Mr. Jones was having a Seizure, but state that they didn't have any training in CPR. If they didn’t have any training, then how can they just say oh he's having a seizure...?
CPR should be a mandatory requirement to be employed at a facility where people have to live. Every officer involved had holes in their stories and should be fired!!!!! Oh yeah and the medical staff... they need to be fired too.... how can they take a oath to save lives but yet lolloy gag around and let a man die, or lay in pain...
For god sakes, replace the first aid kits, do a brief training for the defribulartors the instructions are on the pack.... dummies!!!
If anything there should be a course or some kind of training to prepare the officers for situations like this in this type of facility. They are trained in riots right? So why not train them to handle a medical situation…
They need to step their game up and get certified in the proper training... I guess their not smart enough to know that the more training you have the more opportunities you have make more money because there are lots of careless people who don’t think about the little things that can get them a step up from the rest....
I wonder how would the officers and medical staff fell if the shoe was on the other foot...
10:57 pm
As a former "CO”, guard as they were called in the article or as the correct title Correctional Officer, in Lorton and the Jail, I will part some advice to all who don't really know. Inmates are known for 'runnin game'. If a "man is down", does not mean he is sick. It could be a cry for attention, or a diversion for something that is going on in the background. Every situation is not as it appears. You are working with the most devious and deviant individuals that were formerly in society. The video speaks volumes. Are any of you aware of what this inmate’s institutional record of behavior is or was. I have observed for myself inmates engaged in various levels of sexual activity, as well as having possible diseases, such as HIB, TB and several others that may have capital letters. Officers perform the job without, but do not expect or are willing to risk their lives nor the lives of their families for an individual that may have an incurable disease. They are not the most intelligent bunch, or they would be attorneys, pressing a moot point in court. The man died of a cardiac arrest. If the cardiac arrest happened in the emergency room, in a hospital, then maybe there would be a reason to gripe. The incident transpired in a lockdown unit in the DC Jail. If it transpired on the streets of DC, or a private home, would the time that help arrived been any different? As a former Correctional Officer, I will say that the “Man down “ was not a fault of man but a desire of God to call a man HOME.
12:08 am
To all who have voiced their opinions. First of all I thank you for your opinions. Secondly, I would like to say that this was MY SON. Think about it MY SON, Correctional Officer, Guards, what ever you want to call them, supposedly first of all human being, I understand that their jobs are tough, but as I said their jobs. It is their job one that they choice. No one forced them into these jobs, they choice that job, does that mean that you become inhuman. That you forget or neglect mankind. To allow what happened to my son is crazy, inhumaine and unforgetable. I can not imagine doing anything of the sort. These people did not act at all like it was an emergency, important or like it mattered to them at all. How careless can society be to allow people that we intrust to do a job be so carefree about a life. I deal with my son's death everyday since January 20. I feel the pain and the hurt, but for the guards that were there, I pray for you, because its NO way I could sleep at night, knowing that I did not do anything to help. I ask that everyone, please send in your comments, something has to happen. There has to be a solution to this problem. We can not make up excuses for open neglect. Please help to stop this. Pray for me, my family and everyone involved, cause the next video could be your son.
10:06 am
Mother, I am sorry for your loss. May God help you and yours through this trying time. I understand how you feel and have been on both sides of the bars. As a former officer, I agree with you more should have been done. It does not stem from just from the officers, because there are some good ones in that barrel of rotten apples. With saying that there are also some good men on the other side of the bars as well. I did not know your son, but I have been in the situation when there was a "man down", whether from a stabbing, fight, or illness. You assess every situation differently. The video shows someone trying to help, even though he may not have known what he was doing. I know all the officers in the video. I will say that the problem stems from management. What you have in management is a product of the ineffectiveness, and corruption that permeated the system in the 1980s and 1990s. Where cronyism was rampant, also known as the good old boy club. People were promoted, for doing the right thing to the right person (Dep Director Pat Britton), not by earning their position. With this type of mentality you end up with substandard training. Yes, they do not train for CPR and when the did it was for a select few. Everyone has said it is not my fault. Yes it is. It is the systems fault, it is the fault of the officers for letting the management get away with it, it is management's fault for not trying to make it better, it is my fault for knowing how terrible that system is and not trying to make it better, it is the city's fault for not caring enough. The only person I can not blame is his mom. She just loved her son, even though he may have made bad decisions, she loved her son.
8:32 pm
i just wanna say to the air-headed guy who believes everything that his "fello"
government tells him like the other ppl who told you about DC how god-awful the conditions are-believe that these are facts coming STRIAGHT OUT THE PEOPLES MOUTH. See I'm from here and I know how dirty these CO"S be the have sex with the inmates,bring them stuff in & like it's already been said you can't even touch them(visitors) so they don't help the crime circulate the CO"S do just like you've seen on this horrific video.See my dad died in there due to cancer and instead of them letting him come home to spend his final days with his family (like the cort ordered) they mishandle the paperwork and transferred him right accross the"parking lot"to dc general where they still didn't release him nor treat him
they gave him Tylenol 3 for a cancer that had spreaded throughout six different parts of his body.Reminding myself of this upsets me a great deal but watching what they did to Mr.Jones & his family makes me wanna tell my story I can't believe that this and other prisons hasn't caused national attention but instead we get to see the news reporters obsessing about paris hilton and how suitable her jail conditions should be.Our family has sued the Jail aswell as other officials responsible for this & please note NO AMOUNT OF MONEY COULD BRING A LOVED ONE BACK-but when you sue someone in cases like this it's not only to make the aware of the heartache that they caused but to bring attention to OVERPAID STAFF who don't do there jobs or have the proper training.For ppl who live here they know what goes on inside our city but for the ones like Kevint probably a former c o himself the next time you do your homework don't believe what out postcards when you visiting our museums come talk to mothers like mine and Ms.Jones.
Anothetr Daughter without a father
7:05 am
To Mr Kevin T
How dare you asked them questions about my cousin. Those officers were not properly trained in medical techniques. The video clearly shows them laughing and doing nothing. My family is going through a hard time tryin to deal with the death of my cousin. Mr. Kevin T ask yourself if it was your brother or son would you be asking those questions. Remember before you ask yourself that be true to yourself.
9:48 am
About a month ago, my brother was tasered in PG County by two police officers. (You may have heard about it because it was all over the news). I am sick to my stomach to hear this about this immate. I don't care if you are a stone cold killer, human life has no meaning to people who have taken an oath to protect and serve. They feel as though they have become a smal "god" in disguise and it pisses me off. Regardless of who that man was, his life should have meant more than what they thought. If we as citizens, sit back ad continue to complain, bitch, and just post comments about this then we are no better than the them. We must DO SOMETHING.
When I saw on the video and then read that they just threw his jumper on his face that lets me know that they had NO intention to save his life....just another sorry ass good for nothing inmate, throw him on the gurney and watch him die and then we can move on with our lives...oh, yea, and don't forget to cover your tracks so that no one takes the blame. What they didn't know....a camera that can't lie is watching you and you are going to get caught PIG!!!
Please, please, please hear me out.....you can hit me up on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/lilbrovamarc or email me and let's do this together...
BETTER TRAINING, BETTER PEOPLE, BETTER OUT COMES.....NO MORE LIVES TAKEN BY THOSE THAT ARE SUPPOSE TO PROTECT US.
ONE LOVE!!!!
10:42 am
This article is a article none of us would ever forget. Just because a person goes to jail dosen't mean that you have to treat them differently. They are still human beings. This could have been prevented if the officers on duty at the time were properly trained. When reading this aricle I leared that my cousin was down for a hour with no care that means no oxyen no CPR no NOTHING. Do you know that 1 hour that lapse with nothing probably would have saved him. So I say to all of you who read this article listen to what his MOM is saying and comment on the article becauase this truly needs to stop. Eveybody and everyone that was there and did nothing needs to be hold accountable for there actions for this senseless death of my cousin. This was a father, brother, son who was full of life and one was was returning back home to his family but as you can see that never happen because. When looking at video and wastching officers just looking and laughing and not doing nothing really angers me. In closing I hope the death of my cousin open all eyes and ears for everyobdy to see how the inmates are getting treated at DC jail. We hear stories all the time about other inmates and there problems but when it hits YOUR FAMILY it hurts real bad. So I say to all to your readers if you have a relative over there and they complianed call the warden if that don't work fo futher. Becuase you best believe my family will go to the TOP if need to be to get justice.
3:48 am
Ok I see alot of responses since my last. My condolenses an prayers go out to the family of the departed. In reading theses comments what I realize is that here is a clear example of the unerlying problem in this city today. The people who have been here all of there lives(natives) have a clear view of whats going on and noone is listening, I'm telling you I know for a fact that most of those guards are junkies and criminals who havnt been caught. MAYBE NOT ALL, but most. If you think Im wrong prove me wrong give them a surprise drug test that will kill all the misconception. People are to smart for there own good, dont wanna beleive that SHIT stinks. It is obvious that this city is headed for an ugly uprising, cause were tired and were not being heard, or better yet were being ignored. Like I said b-4 Dc has gotten a beautiful facelift but its left some ugly scars and what its covering up is even more detestable. Our parents marched in the 60s against just this type of genocide and oppresion.
How long do you think its going to be b-4 weve had enough of being complacent with the bullshit that is dealt to our people on a daily basis. The misconception about the jail is that everyone in it is a criminal. Which is complete nonsense although there are criminals there, there are also ALOT of inocent black men and women over there who havnt comited any crime except for being young black and from the hood. See if your from the inner city then you know if you fall under those characteristics that your guilty untill proven innocent in this country, and it use to be that they targeted black men, but are you paying attention to what there doing to your daughters as well. Its a given that you will probably be arrested at least once in your lifetime . Do you know how many cases are thrown out of the court system in a month for bogus arrests. Cause everyone knows That DC Police and PG police departments are nothing but organized gangs. So why do you think that CO's are any better. I guess you say there not all bad. Well then your contradicting yourself because according to this system if I'm aware of the crime, then I share in the time. Meaning, If you consdier yourself a good officer and you stand back and watch your fellow officer do something FUCKED UP and then stand back and say nothing or do nothing about it then you are just as bad. 1 thing for certain everyone knows that theres a code of ethics amongst officers, that you dont snitch. Although in this system 1/3 of the inmates over there are locked up because they wont tell on someone else. Thats b-4 you even hit the jail. Whats sad is that it takes a tragedy like this to get people to pay attention. The system has made it so it is counter productive to stand up for what it is you know is right. Good forbid people stand up and jepordize there comfort zones. The powers at be know that and use it against us in every way. If your reading this article you should also google the Willie Lynch Syndrome. In a nut shell it speaks on how to use the slavemaster mentality to divide and conquer a nation. When you sit back and say oh its not my problem it is your problem. Oh and how about the bullshit misconception that "oh there just acting like niggas" Thats classic, turn the house nigga against the field hand. It could have been your son or daughter locked up on a humble. I saw a kid get locked up and beat down for spitting in public(whatever, harrasment at its best). My little 16 year old brother was arrested last month for armed robbery, when we told the investigatir that we had his attendance records and could prove that he was in class, the officer responded " Thats Ok we know he knows who did it and he will be here untill he tells us". Its hard enough being a young black man out here, but basically he knew my brother was innocent and still put him in the system, cause if there not criminals were going to make them that way anyway. What happen to integrity. but thats another issue, my point is we could swap horror stories about the abuse of our folks young and old but when are we going to do something about it!!!!!!!!!
5:38 pm
I am the attorney representing the family of the "man down". Everyone interested in freedom of the press and free speech should know that the District of Columbia today filed a motion with the court seeking to prohibit public disclosure of EVERYTHING relating to this case that the District decides to stamp "CONFIDENTIAL". This, of course, is apparently required because Jason Cherkis' article was embarrassing to certain DC employees and shocking to the public. By the way, it would apply retroactively. In short, you never heard about Thomas Jones. It was just your imagination.
1:04 pm
This is a very damaging story, and my heart goes out to the families of those impacted my this. There appears to be serious damage control in the works for DC. I am surprised that this has not been reported (to my knowledge) in other local media sources. If I worked as a CO at DC jail, I would be concerned as well. Would the response have been the same, if this was a CO down?
Just Food for Thought - You do the Dishes
1:18 pm
I knew this young man "personally" as well as some of his other siblings. My heart goes out to his family especially in light of the inhumane injustice which lead to his death. I pray that JUSTICE will be served.
8:52 am
This situation goes both ways but according to the incident at hand the DC Jail is responsible in how they handled this man's life whether criminal or non criminal, he was a human being and a beloved son of a Mother. For years I have heard stories of multiple inmates who have resided in their custody and yes their cries were mis-interpeted, mis-judged because of lack of the guards responsibility to ensure that these men and women are not degraded. Some of these guards are criminals that haven't been caught and many of these men even get heroin addicted by being incarcerated by contrband that is being smuggled in by the guards. In DC and working for the government one should actually know why bother if you don't care about the individuals whose lives are in you hands to oversee. This family and other families whose family members have been neglected in this facility ought to get a class action suit against those that have discriminated against their loved ones or better still let some of the guards sleep in some of these cells that are unfit for a human to be in. I am sure if these men are doing tiem for the crime they committed, fix the situations that have occured and then you wouldn't have to worrry about them being repeat offenders.
8:14 pm
It's a damm shame how they co's at DC Jail treat the detainee's there,
regardless of what they are in there for they are still human,and they do deserve respect just like the co's.Reading this story makes a person
wonder about their own relative inside of that HELL HOLE.
5:05 am
I knew jamie he was a person who lite up my day. I love him with all my heart. I commented on this just 2 let everyone no he is never goona be forgotten. he didn't deserve that treatment & I wish something could have been done. he was a good man. I was shocked by this news & the more I learn the worst it get. I really miss him and all you people involed in this I hope you suffer. I know that's not going to bring him back but he was a good man & he will never be forgotten. LOVE YOU ALWAYS JAMIE.
3:29 am
My heart truly goes out to this family. I know first hand what it is like to lose a loved one while incarecerated at DC HELL. I recently lost my husband at thier incompetent hands. It's a shame that no matter how many letters you write, how many phone calls you make or the fact that you are there on every visiting day to let the staff know that your loved one has family and that they are loved and wanted ; the staff does not care nothing about them. What happenened to "justice for all". Whats even more incomprehensible our government is taking part in the cover-up. Our tax dollars mean nothing. Take my money and spit in my face.It is all so very sad. I miss my husband with every breath I take and I'm sure this family feels the same way. Someone need to be held accountable for these injustices. SHAME ON THEM ALL.