Autopsy says Mentally Ill Black Man Died of Thirst while Restrained in Solitary Confinement - Homicide Not Ruled Out

From [HERE] A Black inmate from North Carolina with severe mental illness died of thirst after being held in solitary confinement, an autopsy report said. The report, released Thursday by the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office, said that the inmate, Anthony Michael Kerr, died of severe dehydration. Mr. Kerr, 53, was found unresponsive in the back of a van on March 12 after being driven from Alexander Correctional Institution to the mental hospital at Central Prison in Raleigh. The State Department of Public Safety subsequently fired a captain and four nurses at Alexander. A nurse and a psychologist resigned. In her autopsy report, Dr. Lauren Scott, a pathologist, said state prison officials declined to give her information about the circumstances leading to Mr. Kerr’s death, including when he last had access to food and water.

The autposy said that he had abrasions on his arms “consistent with restraint devices.” And that key details regarding his death such as when he last had food or water were left unanswered by an internal investigation, the Associated Press reports.

Even now, it’s not clear just how Kerr died. He was being transferred to a medical facility March 12 that was 164 miles away, and was found unresponsive at the end of the 3-hour journey. A Department of Public Safety spokeswoman told the Raleigh News & Observer she couldn’t explain what sort of treatment he would receive and why he wasn’t taken to a closer facility. His sister, Brenda Liles, told the Associated Press earlier this year that she had called prison officials repeatedly in the days leading up to his death to try to get him help, after she heard from other inmates that he was in danger. Even before the autopsy was released Thursday, seven prison staff members had lost their jobs over Kerr’s death.

But the Department of Corrections has declined to publicly release findings from an internal investigation. In her autopsy, pathologist Dr. Susan E. Venuti wrote that the Department allowed a “witnessed review” of the investigation, but would not allow her to take a copy. She said the investigation lacked key information, such as when Kerr last received food and water. Because of this, she could not determine whether the death was a homicide. The agency told AP its investigation is still ongoing.

The prison where Kerr was in confinement, Alexander Correctional, was under investigation for another controversial death several years ago, in which inmate Timothy E. Helms was paralyzed and had his skull smashed in after he set fire to his cell, and said prison staff responded by beating him with billy clubs.

Several courts and the Department of Justice have said that it is unconstitutional to hold mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement at all, let alone for 45 days while they are in reported mental distress. Inmates in solitary confinement are even more at the mercy of prison staff than most inmates, with no time outside their cell, and food and water brought to them. Prisons in North Carolina and elsewhere reportedly deprive inmates in solitary of water. And other inmates have died after periods in solitary by being gassed to death, “baked” to death, and deprived of basic medical care.

A 2011 National Geographic segment on gangs at the prison where Kerr was held describes its solitary confinement facilities this way: “In a prison notorious for tight security, this is where controls are most severe. This is the prison within the prison. Inmates here spend 23 hours a day in a 7 by 10 foot cell. A typical stay is 30 days. Some prisoners have been here for years.”

That segment reports that solitary, referred to by inmates as “the hole,” is reserved for “those that pose the greatest threat.” But Kerr was reportedly sent there for disciplinary violations of an unknown character. And some 80,000 inmates nationwide are reportedly sent to solitary confinement — many for disciplinary violations as minor as wearing the wrong underwear or for their purported protection.