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| Inmate death raises jurisdictional concerns |
| By .tricities.com - Michael Owens |
| Published: 12/30/2011 |
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Severely beaten Red Onion State Prison inmate Kawaski Bass could have arrived in an emergency room just beyond Virginia’s state line in less than two hours. Instead, the state’s jurisdiction-based policy on hospital care made sure his battered and bruised body lay in the back of an ambulance for a nearly four-hour ride on Sept. 6. “It amazed me to know they took him so far … despite other hospitals being in the area,” said Bass’ sister, Tarsha Bass. Guards at the Pound-based prison found the inmate unconscious in his cell and initially had an ambulance rush him to the nearby Dickenson Community Hospital. But the devastating head injuries and internal bleeding were too much for the local medical center to handle. So, doctors wheeled Kawaski Bass back into the ambulance and sent him to what is known as a Level I trauma care center - a hospital staffed night and day to tackle the most debilitating injuries. A map shows the nearest such hospital to be Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., roughly 75 miles away. Yet the ambulance was sent to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Va., roughly 197 miles away. That way, guards could maintain their custody over the inmate. “The Virginia prison system stipulates that we cannot transport their prisoners across state lines,” said Mountain States Hospital spokeswoman Teresa Hicks, whose company runs both the Dickenson and Kingsport hospitals. Kawaski Bass died hours after arriving at the Roanoke hospital in the early morning of Sept. 7. Read More. |
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