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Inmate hanged himself with guards nearby
TALLAHASSEE - An official tells the prison oversight board that the guards waited too long after an inmate threatened suicide.
Prison guards waited too long to enter the cell of an inmate who tied a bedsheet to the frame of his bunk, threatened to kill himself and doused the lights, a state official told an oversight panel.
A few moments later, a prison captain shined his flashlight inside Craig Powell's cell at Martin Correctional Institution. The 25-year-old inmate was on his knees, the bed sheet tied tightly around his neck and his face and chest smeared with feces.
Powell, who was serving an eight-year sentence from Orange County for armed robbery and aggravated assault on an officer, was pronounced dead within two hours.
Kaye Harris, who supervises regular audits of health care in every major prison in Florida, says that staffers at the prison responded too late when Powell threatened suicide May 19.
``They were outside the door while the inmate was hanging himself,'' Harris said. ``That is the only conclusion that anybody could draw.
``Why would you not just open the cell, take the guy out, or take the sheet out?'' asked Harris, a registered nurse.
The Martin Correctional Institution incident is the latest suspicious prisoner death to surface in the wake of the fatal beating of Florida State Prison inmate Frank Valdes on July 17. Nine guards are on leave while a criminal investigation into the Valdes death continues.
Details of Powell's death came to light Friday during a meeting between the Department of Corrections officials and the Correctional Medical Authority, the oversight board. Several board members told John Burke, head administrator for DOC's bureau of health services, that they wanted a further explanation.
Burke said they would get one, but that it was unfair of the medical authority to raise the issue of the Powell's death at the public meeting, because it was not on the agenda. CMA obtained the report of the death from DOC at least two weeks ago, Harris said.
``We kind of got blindsided,'' DOC spokesman C.J. Drake said.
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