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| Man Found Dead in California Jail Cell |
| By The Mercury News |
| Published: 08/26/2002 |
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A 32-year-old man died in his Santa Clara County Jail cell on August 13, more than an hour after a officer last checked on him, in what the Department of Correction acknowledged as a lapse in protocol for monitoring inmates. Charles Li, who had been jailed since his June 28 arrest on a spousal battery warrant, was found 'face down and unresponsive'' at 1 a.m. alone in his cell on the medical ward, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi. Paramedics could not revive him, and at 1:34 a.m. he was pronounced dead. Inmates on that ward are supposed to be checked at least every half hour, but Li had gone unsupervised at least twice that long before jailers found him unconscious, Cursi said. The coroner's office has not yet determined the cause of Li's death. Jail officials wouldn't say why Li was in the medical ward. Cursi said the Department of Correction will investigate the incident, the first inmate death in the jail this year. Some jailers familiar with the incident blamed Li's death on chronic understaffing. 'The whole jail system has been short-staffed and the department has been doing a good job of keeping a lid on it,'' said correction officer Richard Abbate, former president of the jailer's union who is working on the medical ward this week. According to Abbate, Li 'was blue and cold to the touch'' when officers found him, suggesting 'he was probably expired for several hours before he was found.'' Unit 8C where Li and 53 others were jailed is routinely unattended for hours at a time, Abbate said, adding that jail nurses complain that understaffing interferes with their treatment of inmates. The jail had 44 officers working on the day of Li's death, more than the 43 required, Abbate said. |
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