http://thesouthern.com/news/local/article_1918bdb8-be27-11df-8ec4-001cc4c03286.htmlCHESTER - For the second time in less than seven years, the death of a Menard Correctional Center inmate was caused by extreme body temperatures.
James H. Ingram, 33, died of hyperthermia, or elevated body temperature, during a late June heat wave, Randolph County Coroner Randy Dudenbostel said.
Psychiatric medication Ingram was taking that "has a tendency to raise core body temperature" could have contributed to the cause of death, the coroner said.
"One of the warnings on the drug was to avoid excessive heat," he said.
Ingram was locked in a single, solid-door cell in Menard's segregation unit when he was discovered unresponsive at 4:05 p.m. June 26, Dudenbostel said. Resuscitation efforts started immediately, the coroner said, and Ingram was taken to the prison's health care unit, but health care workers were unable to save him. Ingram was pronounced dead at 4:50 p.m.
Investigations conducted by Dudenbostel's office as well as the state police concluded the death was accidental; however, an attorney representing Ingram's family disputes that finding and is preparing a federal civil rights action alleging deliberate indifference in violation of the 8th Amendment, which forbids the infliction of cruel or unusual punishment.
"What's not OK is leaving an inmate in insanely hot temperatures with a deleterious effect and led to Mr. Ingram's death," the family's attorney, Alan Mills of the Uptown People's Law Center in Chicago, said.
Temperatures averaged in the low to mid-90s in the five days leading up to Ingram's death and were an oppressive 95 degrees on the day he died.
Ingram was in a cell, about 8 fett-by-15 feet, Mills said, with no air conditioning, no fan, no window, and as a result, no ventilation.
"This is a closed front cell with absolutely no movement of air at all," Mills said.
Because of the efforts undertaken after his death, no accurate temperature could be taken inside the cell, Dudenbostel said, but the temperature in the building just outside his cell was 91 degrees at 6:11 p.m., some two hours after Ingram was first discovered unresponsive.
"And you can bet it was a lot hotter inside his cell at 4 p.m.," Mills said.
While Dudenbostel said the cell did have running water when he checked an hour after Ingram's death, Ingram's brother Edward French said other inmates said the cell hadn't had running water for at least 24 hours.
"We were told prisoners had started flooding their cells so they could lay in water to get cooled off," French said. Mills said interviews he conducted found Ingram's cell was without running water for at least a day before his death.
"There are two working theories: either it was broken or it was turned off as a disciplinary measure. Our contention is that it doesn't matter. Either way, it was far too hot for a human being to be living in that cell and someone should have done something about it," Mills said.
Ingram's death likely did not occur quickly, Mills said.
"It should have been apparent to anyone walking by that he was largely unresponsive and lethargic for a period of at least 24 hours," he said.
While Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman asked that questions regarding Ingram's death be e-mailed, she did not respond to e-mails or repeated phone calls Thursday and Friday.
French said he, too, is having difficulty getting answers from IDOC or Menard officials. He's not even sure why his brother was in prison because that information has been removed from the IDOC website.
Newspaper reports, however, indicate Ingram may have been incarcerated for committing a sexual assault in Round Lake Beach.
"I just want to know how this happened," French of Joliet said. "In prison, how do you die from heat exhaustion? It doesn't make sense."
The death is the second at the prison that has been attributed to extremes in body temperature. Disciplinary action was taken against three employees at the prison after an inmate died from hypothermia on Christmas Day, 2003.
Charles Platcher, who was under a strip-cell suicide watch in the prison's health care unit, was confined without clothing in an unheated cell with only a blanket for protection from the winter cold.
The temperature that Christmas Day was 26 degrees.
"I know these guys are not cherry blossoms. They're not roses, but they're still someone's brother, son, dad, friend. First, you got a guy who freezes to death and now one cooks. There's got to be a problem there somewhere. I want to find out why is it people are dying in this prison, and nobody is giving a s---," French said.
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