Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Smuggled Video Reveals Glimpse Inside Florida's Shockingly Dangerous Prisons
Miami Herald: Leaked Videos Show Florida Prison In All Its Squalor, Violence
Scott Whitney, inmate No. U21924, filmed a documentary on the Florida prison system and nobody knew. At least the guards didn’t. Over a period of years, the convicted drug trafficker used specially rigged, almost cartoonishly oversize eyeglasses fitted with hidden cameras and a hollowed-out Bible with a lens peeking through the O in HOLY to capture the gritty, ugly, violent world inside Martin Correctional Institution, one of Florida’s more notoriously dangerous prisons. (Ellenbogen, 10/4)
The Washington Post: Secretly-Recorded Prison Film Shows The Gruesome Reality Of Life Inside
With a camera hidden in a hollowed-out Bible, peeking through the “O” of the word “Holy,” and a pair of rigged reading glasses, Scott Whitney secretly filmed the world behind bars, inside one of Florida’s notoriously dangerous prisons. For four years, the 34-year-old convicted drug trafficker captured daily life on contraband cameras at the Martin Correctional Institution. He smuggled footage dating back to 2017 out of the prison and titled the documentary “Behind Tha Barb Wire.” The video — given to the Miami Herald — allows the public to see with their own eyes the violence, rampant drug use and appalling conditions inside the prison. (Paul, 10/7)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Family Of Cleveland City Jail Inmate Says Officers’ Indifference Led To Preventable Suicide
The family of a Cleveland man who took his own life in the now-shuttered City Jail in 2017 said in a lawsuit that corrections officers failed to properly screen him for mental-health issues. Jesus Malave Morales, 33, died on Oct. 11, 2017, six days after he hanged himself with a blanket in his cell. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Cleveland on Friday, said corrections officers failed to screen him for mental health issues or suicide risks. (Heisig, 10/7)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Parma Heights Man Says Cuyahoga County Jail Medical Staff Ignored Worsening Back Problem
A Parma Heights man said in a lawsuit Monday that medical personnel in the Cuyahoga County Jail ignored his cries of severe back pain and would not send him to the hospital for a condition that later required surgery. David Frunza, 24, said in a suit he filed in federal court in Cleveland that MetroHealth emergency doctors treated him in August 2018 for worsening mid-back pain. (Heisig, 10/7)
North Carolina Health News: Mecklenburg Opens NC's First Jail Psych Unit
The jail psychiatric unit in downtown Charlotte — known as “McP” — looks like a school, but it’s actually North Carolina’s first behavioral health unit located in a county jail. Inmates, or residents as the sheriff calls them, take daily medications, attend group classes, and participate in therapy with the aim of getting better before returning to the general population in the Mecklenburg County Central Detention Center or being released to the outside world. (Duong, 10/8)
