Tales from Prison: Left to die a preventable, agonizing death, alone, untreated, while surrounded by guards and inmates.

I loaded a prison bus to be transported back from jail to my assigned correctional facility. As I climbed up the steps and walked down the narrow isle I passed two cages, one on each side of the bus. Then passed through a gate in a fenced in divider that separated the front of the bus where the driver and guards stayed from inmates. I took the first seat behind the cage on the right side of the bus.

I sat there while other inmates loaded the bus. My wrist and ankles hurt from the tight shackles, and the smell from the bathroom located at the rear of the bus made me sick at my stomach. Finally, we were on our way.

We stopped at Special Needs, the Department of Correction's hospital, to pickup a couple inmates. The first inmate loaded the bus and the guards placed him in the empty cage on the left side of the bus. Then I heard a commotion. The second guy was refusing to get on the bus.

I could hear, through the open bus door, the man who already had shackles on his hands and ankles arguing with the guards. The guards told him that he was not allowed to get on the bus while wearing a nitro-patch. To which, the man responded that he had just had heart surgery and he was not getting on the bus without the patch.

This went on for a few minutes until the man relented and medical staff removed the patch. Then the guards grabbed the man under the arm and started dragging him onto the bus. The man was still insisting that he needed the nitro-patch or some pills.

The guards locked the man in the cage right in front of me. You could tell the man was furious! The bus left the hospital and hit the expressway. Then all of a sudden the man went into convulsions. I yelled at the guards to get their attention and let them know that something was wrong with this guy. One guard looked at him and turned to talk to the driver.

The bus continued to move and no one seemed to be doing anything about this. While the guy continued to convulse in an unconscious state some inmates mocked him and made fun of him while others hollered at the guards to do something. The bus finally pulled over and one guard walked over to the cage and looked in. Then he turned to the inmates and yelled for them to "shut up!"

He tried to explain over the inmates continued taunting that they couldn't open the cage until the State Police got there. We waited for what seemed like an eternity for them to arrive. The State Police and Ambulance arrived at about the same time.

Then finally the guards opened the gate, the man hadn't move in a while, and they removed his lifeless body. They placed him on a stretcher and into the ambulance. It drove off without any lights flashing, syrene blaring or sense of urgency. I was told later the guy died from a heart attack.

I can still hear this guy argue with the guards and see him die in my nightmares.

Note: this happened over fifteen years ago and since then the Department of Corrections has hired a new Commissioner and medical Provider. Hopefully, this kind of thing wouldn't happen now!