Left To Die
By: Kim Filby
Being a decent person, you may wonder why the staff at the infamous
Frackville state prison in East-Central Pennsylvania waited
around to let a heart attack victim die. When we heard the account
we could hardly believe it even for the worst managed prison in
Pennsylvania.
Our reporter happened to be in the Frackville prison infirmary during the incident. A prisoner, apparently named David Hallman, suffered a serious heart attack. He was only 51 years-old, slender and tall, in generally good health. There was no reason for him to die except for the neglect and incompetence of the prison staff. Because it was early in the morning the medical department, now managed by one Vicki Stanishefski, who has her own ideas about ethics, let Mister Hallman lie a while before help arrived. Eventually the patient was reluctantly taken to the prison infirmary. There he was permitted to die! The staff managed to figured out that Mister Hallman should be sent to the local hospital. The hospital might saved his life. But this heart attack occurred in the Frackville prison, the worst managed prison in Pennsylvania. The heart attack victim couldn't just be sent to the hospital to save his life. There was a rule; prisoners who go out to the hospital MUST be wearing prison boots. It doesn't matter if the guy's dying, boots on the body are a must.. At the Frackville prison there are more rules (most of them as dumb as the prison administrators) than sense. And certainly, nobody in the prison administration cares a lick about the lives, safety or wellbeing of any of the prisoners. It's simply not in their personalities. The victim lay in the prison infirmary. He had no boots, so he was simply allowed to die. It's the rule! After a while a guard was called. Would the guard mind strolling over to the prisoner's dormitory and picking up the guy's boots. It took a while, but, the boots arrived. The patient was dead. This 51 year-old man was allowed to die for the sake of prison boots! The Frackville prison is managed by one Robert Shannon. He's got a nearly illiterate sidekick named Varano. Shannon is not dumb, but there's a big difference between being not dumb and being competent. In Shannon's case the problem is personality and ego. He doesn't seem to be able to bring himself to manage intelligently and humanely. Common sense and good or humane practices appear to trespass his ego and his need to appear "tough" instead of being wise. Being reasonable is, to some imprisonment-types, a sign of weakness. David Hallman is dead thanks to being "tough" - and being callously dumb. At least the corpse had boots. We extend our sincere condolences to Mister Hallman's family and friends. It was a needless death and a sad one.
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