June 7 – 13, 2017
NEWS
Recent deaths call attention to medical care in Forsyth jail by Jordan Green
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Activists in Winston-Salem say medical deaths in the Forsyth County lockup are avoidable.
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Highlighting the medical-related deaths of two black men in the Forsyth County Law Enforcement Detention Center last month, about 20 people chanted, “Indict, convict, no more killer cops or jails,” and, “Money for jobs and education, not mass incarceration.” Then, as dark clouds burst overhead on Monday evening, the protesters took cover under remnant parking deck at Merschel Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem. “Mr. Stephen Patterson went to jail because this system criminalizes poverty,” said Effrainguan Muhammad, the Winston-Salem representative for the Nation of Islam. “He went to jail for child support. His child will never get support now. It’s real when we say black and brown lives matter. But under this system they clearly don’t matter.” Stephen Antwan Patterson, 41, died in the jail on May 26. The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating Patterson’s death at the request of Sheriff Bill Schatzman and District Attorney Jim O’Neill. The state agency is also investigating the May 2 death of 39-year-old Deshawn Lamont Coley. Tony Ndege, a local activist who organized the “No More Jail Deaths” rally and march, said Coley complained several times to staff at the jail about his asthma. “When I talked to his wife, she told me that she expressed concern to the jail about his asthma,” Ndege said. “His mother called the jail extremely concerned about 48 hours before his death about his asthma.” Cheryl Golden attended the rally to support her daughter, Yolanda Dillard, who is currently being held in the jail on multiple counts of failure to appear. “[The jail staff] gave her the wrong medication,” Golden said in an interview. “They gave her a medication that makes her hallucinate.” Dillard was scheduled to appear in Forsyth County Superior Court on a misdemeanor larceny charge and felony
About 20 people protest the recent deaths of two black men in the Forsyth County jail at a demonstration on Monday evening.
probation violation. “They tried to do a cover-up,” Golden said. “The system is screwed up. They didn’t bring her to court. I felt like they didn’t bring her because they didn’t want us to see her condition. The judge ordered a doctor to see her in jail.” Muhammad said the medical treatment received by inmates at the jail represents a troubling pattern. “We are concerned because family members and community say they reached out about the condition of both Stephen Patterson and Deshawn Coley,” he said. “And now Ms. Golden, the mother of Yolanda Dillard, is pleading for her child’s health. It seems as if these pleas are unanswered. That’s very troubling.” Forsyth County Sheriff Chief Deputy Brad Stanley said the SBI investigation addressing potentially criminal issues related to Patterson and Coley’s deaths, while the professional standards division of the sheriff’s office is undertaking an administrative review. The state Division of Health Service Regulation-Construction Section also conducted an inspection of the jail in response to Coley’s death. Roger McCoy, chief of the construction section, informed Sheriff Schatzman in a May 17 letter that the “inspection found no deficiencies whereby no corrective action is necessary.” Correct Care Solutions, a private medical provider based in Tennessee
JORDAN GREEN
that holds the contract for medical care at the jail, is a defendant in two local lawsuits filed on behalf of former inmates. A medical examiner ruled that the death of Dino Vann Nixon, who is white, in the jail in August 2013 resulted from withdrawal from benzodiazepine. Correct Care Solutions and Sheriff Schatzman, who are defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Nixon’s wife, dispute the finding. The suit alleges that medical staff refused to provide Nixon with Xanax, the brand-name for the anti-anxiety medication benzodiazepine. Jennifer McCormack, a pregnant woman who had recently detoxed from opioids, experienced a heart attack in the Forsyth County jail in September 2014. She went into a coma and died at Baptist Hospital a couple days later after her family made the decision to take her off life support. A medical examiner found that McCormack’s heart attack was caused by dehydration. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by McCormack’s estate against Correct Care Solutions alleges that McCormack was unable to take medication prescribed for opioid withdrawal because of nausea, and that she received only one dose of Zofran, an anti-nausea medication during her stay at the jail. “Jennifer’s dehydration would have been identified, treated and her death prevented had defendants reacted to her steadily deteriorating mental and phys-
ical condition and provided the most basic medical assessment and care such as basic laboratory blood tests,” McCormack’s lawyers wrote in a motion filed earlier this year. Correct Care Solutions has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. McCormack’s lawyers are seeking contracts between Correct Care Solutions and off-site medical providers, as the case moves toward trial in March 2018. Correct Care Solutions has characterized that and other requests for documentation by the plaintiffs as “burdensome.” “One of the allegations in this case is that CCS was motivated to minimize offsite patient care in order to reduce costs,” McCormack’s lawyers wrote. “Accordingly, contracts between CCS and off-site providers are discoverable because plaintiff is entitled to determine whether such contracts contain any restrictions or limiting language.” A registered nurse and nurse practitioner formerly employed by Correct Care Solutions are also defendants in the suit. Chief Deputy Stanley said Correct Care Solutions is conducting a separate investigation in response to the deaths of Deshawn Coley and Stephen Antwan Patterson focusing on medical aspects. Court documents in the Nixon lawsuit indicate that the investigations conducted by the healthcare company after an inmate’s death are secret. “The Continuous Quality Improvement Committee was formed and adopted by CCS’ governing body and medical staff for the sole purpose of peer review to evaluate the quality of medical care and for the purpose of improving future performance,” wrote Dawn Ducote, a Correct Care Solutions executive an April 2017 affidavit filed in the Nixon suit in response to a request by the plaintiffs for records. “These documents are not otherwise available as public record and are held strictly confidential by myself as the committee’s program director,” Ducote wrote. Patty McQuillan, the spokesperson for the State Bureau of Investigation, said the state agency did not receive