2 Bureau of Prisons employees convicted over the death of an inmate

Many people do not care what happens to those who commit crimes and are convicted. The problem with this way of thinking is the simple fact that many of these people are not hardened criminals until they hit the prisons. They made mistakes and are paying for them, which means they may be able to still lead productive lives. Allowing a prisoner to die because of a bad attitude is not something that should happen, especially for someone in a position of leadership in a jail and someone who has been trained as a medical professional.

Lieutenant Shronda Covington and Tonya Farley, RN, forgot their duties and allowed someone with a serious medical condition to worsen until they died. This is not justice in any valid manner, which they are not tasked with. Covington's job was to manage other correctional officers and ensure standards inside the prison. Farley's job was to ensure that the prisoners and those working in the jail were to get the proper medical care. This failure show that an already strained system needs to have serious fixes put into place. Instead of these places becoming finishing schools for criminals, they need to be places to help criminals move away from that life.

What Happened

Here, via a DOJ release, is what happened.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-federal-bureau-prisons-employees-convicted-charges-arising-their-failure-obtain

A Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) lieutenant was found guilty this past weekend of violating the civil rights of an inmate by showing deliberate indifference to the inmate’s serious medical needs. The lieutenant and a FBOP nurse were also found guilty of making false statements to a federal agent with the intent to obstruct the investigation into the inmate’s death.

According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, Lieutenant Shronda Covington, 49, of Chesterfield, Virginia, and Registered Nurse Tonya Farley, 53, of Chesterfield, were on duty and working in their official capacities at the Federal Correctional Institution at Petersburg, Virginia, on Jan. 9, 2021. Covington willfully failed to ensure that the inmate, a 47-year-old man identified as W.W., was provided with necessary medical care, even though she knew that W.W. had a serious medical need, and Covington and Farley each made false statements to federal agents during the investigation into the inmate’s death.

Another FBOP official, Lieutenant Michael Anderson, previously pleaded guilty for his role in the inmate’s death and was sentenced to three years in custody.

“Covington’s inexcusable apathy to the medical needs of W.W. over the course of two days caused his unnecessary death,” said Special Agent in Charge Tim Edmiston of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General Mid-Atlantic Region. “Covington and Farley also decided to lie about their involvement in order to escape accountability. The Justice Department Office of the Inspector General will continue to investigate civil rights violations at the hands of Federal Bureau of Prisons employees.”

Evidence presented at trial established that, in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, 2021, W.W.’s cellmate reported to facility staff that W.W. was exhibiting bizarre and unprecedented behavior, including that he was suddenly incontinent and unable to talk and walk normally. Over the course of two days, FBOP officials knew of but disregarded W.W.’s symptoms of a sudden neurological crisis, including his sudden incontinence, incomprehension, inability to talk and struggles to stand or walk without falling.

Without medical attention to address his sudden and serious medical need, W.W. fell into walls and other objects numerous times, causing significant bruising and bleeding to his head and body. Although FBOP policy requires staff to provide necessary medical care to inmates, Covington and Anderson ignored the policy and their training and failed to respond to repeated calls for help from inmates and line staff.

W.W. finally fell head-first into a wall and then to the floor in an observation cell, where — despite inmate-observers’ continued calls for help — he lay for an hour and 40 minutes before officers rendered aid. An autopsy concluded that W.W. died of blunt force trauma to his head and that the lack of medical assistance he received during his series of falls and after his last fall contributed to his death.

Covington and Farley will be sentenced on a later date. Covington faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, and Farley faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

There is no excuse for any of this.

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