Update

Dear Prison Society Supporters:

It took a year for the truth to come out about how a man suffering from mental illness died inside Dauphin County Prison. The jail’s version of events concealed the use of force that, one expert told PennLive, made the death a homicide. It’s a particularly shocking example of how jails fail to be transparent about deaths behind bars.

At a time when Dauphin County Prison and other Pennsylvania jails are seeing a surge in deaths, withholding information about how people are dying undermines efforts to prevent further losses of life behind bars.

The truth about the Dauphin County death

Ishmail Thompson died last summer at the age of 29 after being in Dauphin County Prison for only a few hours. Several months later, the county issued a press release concluding that he had assaulted a corrections officer before his death, but there was “no evidence of physical assault” against Thompson. He died of “complications of cardiac dysrhythmia,” authorities said.

This account left out troubling events that PennLive’s Josh Vaughn uncovered a year after Thompson’s death. Twenty minutes before he lost consciousness, officers pepper-sprayed Thompson in the face in an attempt to restrain him. Thompson, who had been brought to the jail for an “involuntary mental-health commitment,” reacted by striking one of the officers before they forced him to the floor and shackled him. They then covered his head with a spit hood, a mesh bag that can potentially lead to suffocation when used on someone who has been pepper-sprayed. Next, the officers moved Thompson into a restraint chair, to which his hands, feet, and chest were bound, and a nurse cleared him to be locked in a cell without removing the spit hood. Thompson was in the restraint chair with the spit hood over his head for seven minutes before an officer noticed he was having trouble breathing and called for help. Shortly thereafter, he stopped breathing altogether.

The Dauphin County coroner did not come to a conclusion as to whether these actions led to Thompson’s death. But a former chief medical examiner of Washington, D.C., told PennLive unequivocally that they did. If not for the outlet’s investigative reporting, we might never have known how his treatment in jail factored into his death.

Many deaths leave unanswered questions

How many other deaths in custody did jails play a role in that we don’t know about? What lessons could we have learned from those unknown tragedies to help prevent more deaths? In Dauphin County Prison alone, several other recent deaths have raised questions. Sixteen people have died in the jail since 2019, including at least four from suicide. Most of the others died of natural causes, according to the county coroner--i.e., an illness or a medical condition. The jail reported only one death from COVID-19. The others included Kejuan Cooke, who died from “complications of bowel inflammation, colitis and short bowel syndrome” at just 19 years old.

It’s typical for jails to share little information about deaths beyond such medical causes. But that may only tell part of the story. People in custody often have problems accessing medical care, raising the question of whether some of these deaths could have been prevented. It’s especially important to investigate further when they are dying young, says Robin Mejia, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who has collaborated with the Prison Society to study Pennsylvania jail deaths.

“Just because a death is labeled natural doesn’t necessarily mean it was unavoidable,” Mejia says. “It’s important to determine if natural-cause deaths were related to access to care.”

Allegheny County Jail has also seen an alarming increase in deaths, with 16 since the beginning of the pandemic, only one of which was from COVID-19. Nearly a third of those who died were under the age of 40. In March, Gerald Thomas, Jr., died suddenly at 26 years old from blood clots in his lungs. Thomas’ mother said that he had asked for medical care three days prior to his death and demanded a fuller explanation. But the jail has refused calls from family members and the Jail Oversight Board for more transparency.

In Philadelphia, 29 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic amid unsafe and inhumane conditions in the city’s jails. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the city issued news releases for only two of the deaths.

Steps in the right direction

Despite its failure to be forthcoming about deaths in jail, Dauphin County Prison has taken steps toward greater transparency in recent years. The jail has allowed the Prison Society more access, including a monthly meeting with the warden and a monthly walkthrough of the facility. The county also hired Pennsylvania’s former secretary of corrections, John Wetzel, to conduct a review of the jail, and gave Wetzel an opportunity to share his initial findings publicly earlier this year.

In Allegheny County, officials recently announced the hiring of an outside contractor to conduct a “historical review of fatalities” in the jail. The review will be conducted by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, an organization that sets standards for health care in prisons and jails. This is an encouraging step to better understand why so many people have died in the jail’s custody, one that should be replicated in other jails with high death rates. But the county should also commit to sharing the results with the public to show it is truly interested in increasing transparency. Only then can elected officials and the public ensure that the jail is held accountable for acting on any lessons that can be learned from these deaths.

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