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Articles by C.J. Ciaramella

Newly Released Government Records Reveal Horrible Neglect of Terminally Ill Woman in Federal Prison

by C.J. Ciaramella

A woman who died in federal prison suffered in pain for eight months while waiting for a routine CT scan, records released to Reason show.

Doris Nelson was one of three inmates identified by a 2020 Reason investigation who have died since 2018 from alleged medical neglect at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Aliceville, a federal women’s prison in Alabama. Reason reported on allegations of disastrous delays in medical care at Aliceville; desperate letters, lawsuits, and numerous interviews with current and formerly incarcerated women inside the prison described months-long waits for doctor appointments and routine procedures, retaliation from staff, and terrible pain and fear.

Reason filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2020 for post- mortality reviews of all inmate deaths at Aliceville. Three years later, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) finally released some of those reports. The Eighth Amendment is supposed to protect incarcerated people from medical neglect and cruelty, but a multi-level mortality review performed by the BOP shows that staff ignored Nelson’s pleas for help for months while she lost the ability to walk. Staff advised her to take Motrin for excruciating pain and delayed and denied a CT scan that would ...

She Tried to Report Sexual Harassment in Jail. After Her Suicide, the Guard Was Convicted of Assaulting Four Other Women

by C.J. Ciaramella, Reason.com

The family of a 23-year-old woman who committed suicide in a rural Washington jail in December 2019 says she tried to report sexual harassment by a guard, but her complaint was dismissed. Months later, that same jail guard was sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting four ...