Family, ACLU sue Alaska Department of Corrections for man's death due to untreated ear infection
The family of Lewis Jordan Jr. and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska filed a wrongful death lawsuit this week against the Alaska Department of Corrections and several staff.
The lawsuit filed on Tuesday charges that antibiotics and medical care for an acute ear infection would have saved the life of the 53-year-old Jordan, while incarcerated in Goose Creek Correctional Center in Wasilla in March 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that corrections staff displayed 'deliberate indifference,' repeatedly ignoring Jordan's pleas for medical treatment, leaving him in extreme pain with flu-like systems for several days. His condition progressed into a fatal case of bacterial meningitis — he was hospitalized, in a coma for several weeks, until his family removed him from life support, according to the lawsuit. The family said Jordan was otherwise in good health.
A spokesperson with the Department of Corrections declined to comment, and said the state's attorney will respond in court.
The lawsuit is filed in federal court by the estate and family members of Jordan, represented by the ACLU of Alaska and Colorado-based attorney Zachary Warren.
'He was a son, a sibling and a cherished member of his family, and he unfortunately got tied up in the criminal legal system,' said Megan Edge, director of the ACLU of Alaska's Prison Project, in an interview Thursday.
'When he was returned to custody, it was for a traffic infraction, and they revoked his parole,' she said. 'And that's such a ridiculous thing to have to die for. His family is absolutely devastated.'
The family is seeking justice for his death, including compensatory and punitive damages, as well as raising awareness around systemwide concerns with DOC policies and treatment of inmates, Edge said.
Edge emphasized people in prison are at the whim of corrections staff in accessing medical treatment. Although Jordan repeatedly submitted requests to visit the medical unit and receive evaluation and treatment, he was never permitted the opportunity to see a medical provider, according to the lawsuit, which charges staff with a pattern of 'gate-keeping medical care.'
'Oftentimes what we see is this distrust from staff to inmates when incarcerated people ask for help,' Edge said. 'But having an ear infection is so common, it is something that we know how to treat. But incarcerated people don't have power over their medical care, and so they are at the mercy of this massive system.'
The lawsuit said other detainees pleaded for him to get care, and were also ignored by staff. For days, he became 'visibly weaker, sicker, and unable to even get out of bed.' When he was found unresponsive in his cell, prison staff 'instead fixated on the unsupported idea that Jordan was experiencing an overdose,' administering Narcan, according to the suit. That caused him not to receive the proper diagnostic treatments in the following hours.
DOC staff placed Jordan in shackles and a spit hood, despite being unconscious, according to the lawsuit, and transported him to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.
'Absolutely dehumanizing,' Edge said of the DOC practice of using the restraint device on unconscious people. 'Unfortunately, this is something that we see. He is not the only person who has passed (in-custody), and who has been transported to the hospital while they are unconscious and shackled and with a spit hood. It's so inhumane and disturbing to visualize.'
Additionally, staff's incorrect identification of an overdose severely delayed proper care at the hospital, the lawsuit charges. The severe progression of meningitis led to medical staff to place him in a medically induced coma, with no recovery. His death was 'entirely preventable,' the lawsuit charges.
During the several weeks Jordan was in a coma, he was paroled from DOC, which the lawsuit alleges 'uses this power to shield from scrutiny for deaths that are a result of its inadequate medical care.'
'He was paroled while he was unconscious. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that, because it's so hard for people in the state of Alaska to get parole, and especially after a technical violation, but even more so, like, without applying for it. So, you know, we do have questions there,' Edge said.
'What we would like to see is the department taking responsibility for the death of people, even if they're in a hospital bed, even if they're a month later because they've been on a ventilator for a month, but if they die because of what happened while they were in the care of the Department of Corrections, the Department of Corrections should absolutely be taking responsibility for their death.'
The lawsuit cites the deaths in outside hospitals that DOC similarly attributed as not being in-custody deaths, including Jimmie Singree and Angelena McCord in 2023.
Since 2022, at least 42 people have died while incarcerated in DOC custody, with at least nine identified as suicides, according to the department.
So far this year, there have been two deaths — the most recent was announced on Tuesday as Reginald Eugene Childers, Jr. who was being held pretrial at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
'Our interest is ultimately reducing deaths in-custody,' Edge said. 'And the only way to be able to problem-solve that, is to have an accurate picture of what actually happened. Where are the gaps in care, where are the issues? And then how can we all work together to solve those? Because, like I said, those are valuable people in our community. They're someone to someone.'
Edge emphasized the need for further transparency and likely policy changes around the quality of medical care, particularly detox protocols, as well as changes to allow those with serious medical issues to be paroled.
'We do have those mechanisms, but because of how those are designed, they're very inaccessible to people,' she said. 'So there are people who are very sick, who are trying really hard to come home, but their discretionary parole is denied for arbitrary reasons, or they don't know that they can apply for geriatric or medical parole. So I think, like we do have some of the systems, but they need improvements, and they're totally achievable.'
This is the third wrongful death lawsuit filed by the ACLU since 2023. The civil rights group is seeking restitution and damages for the families of James Rider and Mark Cook Jr., who died in pretrial custody, without being convicted of a crime.
The Department of Law did not return requests for comment about the status of those lawsuits.
'Many of the people that we have seen die are pretrial defendants who are accused of low-level crimes,' Edge said.
'Alaska does not have the death sentence, but by sending people to our jails and prisons, we're sending them to a really dangerous place where death is totally possible for things that are entirely out of control,' she said. 'Overcrowding, staffing shortages, limited access to medical care, and, like, all of that becomes sort of a dangerous cocktail for people that are stuck there. And they have no ability to advocate for themselves for the conditions that they live in.'
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