Starved Inmate’s Death Leads To Prison Doctor’s Dismissal

A prison inmate who went on a hunger strike and ended up starving himself to death, has exposed major lapses in the way prison handles the medical care of inmates on hunger strikes.

The issues with 57-year-old James Kenneth Embry, who had only three years to serve of his 9 year sentence for drug offences, started back in 2013, when he refused to take anti-anxiety meds which were given to him.

Following some erratic behavior from Embry, including banging his head hard on his cell door, he also began refusing the prison meals that were given to him. Over the course of about a year, the inmate lost over 30 pounds in weight; he died weighing only 138 pounds.

After his death, an internal investigation at the prison determined that Embry was not given the correct medication by prison doctors to address the suicidal thoughts he was having. On top of that, it was revealed that prison staff could have done way more regular checks in order not to allow an inmate to starve to death.

Louisville attorney Greg Belzley, who specializes in inmate rights litigation said: “It’s just very, very, very disturbing. How do you just watch a man starve to death?”

After refusing his medication and then food, Embry drank tea on occasion, and made his intentions to harm himself very clear to prison staff.; they just seemed to ignore him. On January 4, a nurse checked on Embry. Finding him weak and shaky, she told him he should start eating again.

His response to that suggestion was that he had been on a hunger strike for so long that he couldn’t resume eating food again. On the day he died, Bob Wilkinsonan, an advanced practice registered nurse, refused a request from other medical staff to move Embry to the infirmary.

Ronnie Patton, the Lyon County Coroner, classified the starved inmates death as suicide, with the main cause of death being extreme dehydration with starvation as an auxiliary factor.

It seems that the prison system operates outdated protocols which make a death such as this not impossible. What isn’t clear at this stage is what will be done by the prison authorities to ensure that a starved inmate in one of their prisons receives the right medical care in order to avoid starvation.