Death by Indifference-Surviving BOP
Medical Care
Remember
the name Robert Gerald Knott. He was a
severely mentally-ill prisoner at the BOP
Supermax at Florence , Colorado September 13,
2013 . His estate recently
received a settlement of $175, 000 two weeks after suit was filed alleging
violation of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Two weeks.
Knott was
only the most recent of extreme examples of the broken BOP
medical system. Although the Veteran’s
Administration medical system has gotten most of the bad publicity in recent
years, those who are familiar with both systems say that the BOP ’s
is much worse.
There is a
reason for that. The BOP ,
like many government agencies, positively hates ANY publicity regarding its
procedures, because the more you know, the more there is to dislike. The BOP
has many problems, and like all government agencies with problems, does its
best to conceal them. They have trouble hiring competent staff. That staff doesn’t understand proper medical
procedures. Even when you are belatedly
taken to the free world for competent medical help, there is no follow-up at
the institution, and you are often denied the specific medication that would help
you.
Members of
Congress, although generally careful to avoid slamming the agency, to avoid any
blow-back that might show that Congress has been remiss in carrying out its
sworn duties to properly manage those governmental bodies that it funds, (and
in the case of the BOP , funds generously).
However, even Congress is privately disgusted, and that disgust is shared by
the US Sentencing Commission, who just inserted themselves into the
Compassionate Release procedure, citing BOP
inaction (read, “incompetence.”)
How do you
survive this harrowing process? Document
everything, file BP’s, email confirmation of promised treatment, tell anyone
who cares to listen what is going on.
Consider filing a Federal Tort Claims Act, or a 1983 federal Civil
Rights suit after the BP process is exhausted.
At the very least, you will not be passively waiting for medical
treatment which will probably never come, or if it does come, will come too
late.
As to
Robert Gerald Knott, after he was discovered, unresponsive, in his solitary
confinement-cell, per BOP policy he was
cuffed and shackled on his way to the morgue.
