AL pays $1.8 million flesh-eating bacteria case

[flashl]

Mobile payment puts jail death settlement at $1.8 million

Payments to settle a lawsuit over the jail death of a mentally ill inmate from flesh-eating bacteria have risen to more than $1.8 million.

The city of Mobile has paid $375,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Dana Carpenter, the ex-wife of Mobile Metro Jail inmate James Carpenter, 42, who died July 28, 2000. She sued city, county and state officials in 2002 on behalf of his estate.

The city's agreement last month formally ended the court battle and came on top of the $1.45 million that then-Sheriff Jack Tillman paid in 2003 to settle his portion of the suit, the Press-Register reported in a story Thursday.

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Flesh eating bacteria is a BIG problem in jails across the country. It will be interesting to see if more lawsuits will follow.

[MadMaddie]

1. Why is it so rampant in the jails?

[ret5hd]

4. Probably the same reasons for the flue epidemic of 1917 or cholera epidemics...

cramped quarters and unsanitary conditions combined with the pathogen being present.

[hedgehog]

5. Because we make such efforts to ensure that our jails are well

ventilated, sanitary and not overcrowded maybe?

on edit : forgot to mention the excellent food, opportunites for exercise and good health care provided in jail.

Wait until you here about how much multiple drug resistant TB we're developing in our prisons!

[flashl]

6. I learned about flesh-eating bacteria in jails back in the 90s from the CDC

MRSA is a virulent staph infection that thrives in close populations such as jails, prisons, and medical facilities.

Prisons are rife with infectious ilnesses -- and threaten to spread them to the public (2001).

The federal Centers for disease Control and Prevention even has an office devoted to the issue. Last March in Atlanta, its director, John Miles, told a hotel ballroom full of prison doctors and nurses that nearly 600,000 inmates are released every year -- many of them riddled with disease. According to the most recent numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 24,000 inmates nationwide were HIV positive in 1996; a more recent study by the nonprofit National Commission on Correctional Health Care put the number with HIV as high as 47,000 -- 10 times the rate in the general population.

[seemslikeadream]

2. well there's a good reason to stay out of jail

[Bitwit1234]

3. My son had it and recovered and he was never near a jail

he is a news announcer on an FM radio station. The doctor told him that everyone has the bacteria in their body. And sometimes outside influences set it off. It is especially susceptible to people with intestine problems.