Four Kentucky inmates died in the Fayette County Jail in 2005, the highest number of deaths there since 1997 and the most in Kentucky for the year. Experts say the number of deaths points to deficient health screening procedures for inmates, particularly when the screening is performed by corrections officers without medical training.
Most jails Lexington's size devote a nurse to screening new inmates for health risks, said Edward Harrison, president of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, a nonprofit organization that makes recommendations for jail standards.
"I can't think of any circumstance where you would prefer not to have a health person screening," Harrison said.
Fayette County jail officials say they are reviewing intake procedures after the four deaths. The review includes the health screening questions they ask of new inmates. But, jail officials said, it would cost up to $300,000 a year to have nurses rather than officers screen every inmate, an expense the jail cannot afford.
Three of the men were middle-aged and in poor health: Gerald Cornett, 45, who died in August, and Phillip W. Barnes, 54, who died in November, had alcohol problems. Barnes, like David Hall II, 44, had heart problems.
"Honestly, it made them walking time bombs," jail director Ronald Bishop said.
The fourth man, Joseph Hill Jr., 26, died of a cocaine overdose - cocaine that fellow inmates say he swallowed in a police wagon on the way to jail. The men all died of different causes. Cornett died from complications from blunt-force trauma to the head, which a coroner's report attributed to a fall on the jail's concrete floor. Men arrested with Hill said he ingested cocaine in the paddy wagon.
Barnes, a homeless man, told jail officers he had no health problems and was taking no medication, though he had brought medication with him in previous jail stays. A preliminary autopsy said Barnes died from heart problems. Officials say Hall from an apparent heart attack.
Intake officers interview inmates upon their arrival and inquire about medical problems that might need attention from a doctor or nurse, said Lt. Darin Kelly, a Fayette County jail spokesman.
The jail turned away 113 inmates in 2005 for medical reasons and sent them to the hospital, up from 27 in 2002. While the figure is up, the jailers should be asking more thorough questions, said Dr. Joe Goldenson, medical director of San Francisco's jails.