'I don't have the funds': a diabetic prisoner pleaded for insulin supplies before his death

[Jilly_in_VA]

On a cold December day in 2021, the echoes of an emergency code cut through the bustling sounds of the Stafford Creek corrections center in Aberdeen, Washington.

The alarm could mean there had been a scuffle at the poker table, an officer was having a bad day, or a new lockdown due to yet another Covid outbreak was being imposed.

This time around, though, word spread across the facility that Clifford Farrar, an incarcerated resident, had collapsed in a common area.

Farrar, a 51-year-old with type 1 diabetes, had been insulin dependent since age 15. On the day he died, his medical records show, his blood sugar was dangerously low. When staff gave him glucagon to raise his levels, the records say, his blood sugar shot up, at which point he had a seizure and heart attack and died. The coroner said Farrar’s cause of death was “natural”, due to heart disease and diabetes.

But Farrar’s family believes the prison neglected his health throughout his detention, including by denying him access to life-saving supplies. A state committee found that staff responding to his collapse lacked proper training and that the medical devices they used had malfunctioned.

Farrar’s death, advocates argue, was a tragic but predictable consequence of the inadequate medical care within the Washington department of corrections (DOC), which has experienced repeated public health crises and scandals in recent years.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/15/prison-healthcare-washington-diabetes-death-clifford-farrar

If you know me at all, you know that prison medical neglect is one of my hot buttons.

[Vinca]

1. That's terrible. If the government is going to take control of a person, they are required to

keep that person safe. The prisoner should have had all the supplies he needed to manage his diabetes whether he could pay for them or not. Hope this family sues for mega mega mega bucks. It won't bring the man back, but it might wake the prison system up.

[femmedem]

2. Law suits need to make it more expensive not to treat patients than to treat them.

Because apparently reliance on human decency isn't working.

[MagickMuffin]

3. I had a good friend who moved to WA, was incarcerated for some reason, died there

He was HIV positive and the prison refused to give him his medication. Died because of neglect from his capturers.

I can’t remember why he was behind bars, but it couldn’t have been that serious as he wasn’t a criminal except for smoking cannabis.

[mzmolly]

4. Horrible.

This poor man got the death penalty.

[GoodRaisin]

5. I wonder Jilly, what he did to deserve all this.

God I hate this shit.

He seemed like a good guy. Serving 2 years for a “felony”. What felony? I wonder if he even deserved to be in prison.

Here’s what I know. In this country you are guilty until you pay 10s of thousands of dollars to prove your innocence. If you are innocent and don’t have the money you are literally sucked into the system by vicious prosecutors who care more about “convictions” than “justice”. One false accusation by somebody can ruin your life.

Then if you have a health issue, such as diabetes, it’s like a death sentence. They lock you up and forget about your illness. Nobody is personally accountable.

This was systematic murder in a country that doesn’t care that it happens.

A country that sits back and allows these things to be the norm is a shithole country.

We all live in a shithole country and most don’t even know it.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. Nobody "deserves" this

No matter what they did. What galvanized me on this issue was a patient I had at one hospital who'd been ignored when he complained repeatedly of belly pain, then given laxatives when he complained of increasing severity of the pain. He was finally found unconscious and bleeding on on the floor of his cell. When they got him to the hospital, his colon had ruptured and he was septic. He ended up with a permanent colostomy and it was touch and go for several days. He was kind of scary looking but he was a cooperative and polite patient who never asked for much and was grateful for whatever we could do for him. It was a matter of treating him like any other human being. I never asked what he did or why he was in prison. He was my patient and in pain. He deserved the best I could give him.

[GoodRaisin]

7. Of course nobody deserves it. Government has a responsibility to protect all human beings.

I’m galvanized on both issues having a family member who’s lived it. Prosecution for false domestic violence charges and neglect of diabetic treatment while in jail. Anytime someone is incarcerated they are subjected to the dangers of this kind of treatment. Human and civil rights are being run roughshod over by our so called justice system and nothing is done. This man would be alive today but for he went into this system.