Here is an excerpt from a story in Monday's Sacramento Bee about the poor medical care at the Sutter County Jail:
Some of the letters, in which the inmates recount Prasad’s cries for help, ended up in one of two court cases that have pushed county officials to revamp their medical and mental health care inside the jail and to pay out more than $1.6 million in settlements to the Prasads and the family of another deceased inmate.
The settlements come more than six years after the Sutter County grand jury began warning officials that health care for jail inmates was plagued with problems and nothing was being done about it.
Now, in response to lawsuits by the Prasads and the family of 56-year-old Rodney Bock, the county says it is addressing some of the most serious deficiencies at the jail in Yuba City. Among the steps taken, according to lawyers for the county and its risk manager, are two that might seem basic: the health care workforce has been increased, and training has been beefed up.
But, efforts by the families’ lawyers to get round-the-clock health care at the jail have stalled.
“That crucial time, when they didn’t have medical care, could have saved my son’s life,” said Mary Prasad, 53, whose son died of pneumonia and bronchitis after his stay in the jail in 2011.
Nathan Prasad, who was 30 and had a history of medical troubles, mental illness and drug abuse, according to his family, was well known to Sutter County jailers. Documents generated during his various stints in the jail detailed his health problems, including a history of staph infection, which is what triggered his death, said Aaron Fischer, an attorney for the Prasad family.
Prasad begged the jailers on duty to take him to the hospital, complaining that his foot and leg were turning black and that he was throwing up blood, according to the family’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento brought on behalf of his mother and three minor children.
“Nathan had been telling everybody, ‘I’m dying, I need some help, I need to go to the hospital,’ ” Mary Prasad said in an interview in the backyard of the Colusa home she shares with her husband, Tom. “And he was just met with ridicule.”
‘Not much we can do’
The Prasad case, settled with the county for $825,000, will result in a $360,000 fund set up for his three young children. It highlights the difficulties rural counties face in caring for sick inmates in their charge.