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| Inmate died of hypothermia |
| By Chicago Tribune |
| Published: 04/05/2004 |
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The death last December of a McHenry County (Ill.) man serving a 40-year sentence in a Downstate prison was caused by hypothermia, a coroner's jury ruled last Tuesday. Officials said a prison nurse was fired and two other Illinois Department of Corrections employees were disciplined in the death of Charles Platcher, 31, who was found naked on the concrete floor of his solitary cell in Menard Correctional Center on Dec. 25. Two valves that supplied heat to the third floor of the prison's medical unit, where Platcher was being held in solitary confinement, were defective, according to testimony Tuesday before the Randolph County coroner's jury. The jury ruled that the death was accidental. "No one had physically touched him in 24 hours," said Randy Dudenbostel, the county's chief deputy coroner. Dudenbostel said the temperature was 60 degrees in Platcher's cell on the day he died and that it probably was much colder overnight. Platcher, who was convicted of stabbing his mother to death in their Oakwood Hills home in 2001, was "basically a pretty healthy guy, physically," weighing 200 pounds and standing just over 6 feet tall, Dudenbostel said. Platcher had been segregated from the general inmate population three weeks before his death because of a rules infraction. Prison officials would not release details of the disciplinary action against the employees but said it was taken within a week of Platcher's death. "As a result of the investigation into this inmate's death, we took immediate action against the employees," said Sergio Molina, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. "We are in a position to make judgment calls like that based on their behavior and reaction" to Platcher's situation. Molina said he had no information about any defect in the prison's heating system but would not dispute the testimony from the coroner's inquest. He said Menard uses steam heat, but he said he does not know how the heating system works. |
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