This is often the last word of a person in custody who did not receive emergency medical care in due time.
Each year, approximately 60 million people in the United States have contact with police officers, and up to 10 million have interactions with correctional officers while being held in U.S. carceral institutions.
However, only in Connecticut, since the passage of the Medical Civil Rights Act in 2023, are law-enforcement officers required to immediately summon emergency medical care for a person experiencing a health crisis while in direct contact with them or in their custody....
Without such statutory protections, lethal delays may occur...
On average, an estimated 7,000 people die in custody each year.
A 501(c)4 organization, was founded to ensure access to health care, by drafting bipartisan legislation and policy.
One of the first legislative efforts of the Medical Civil Rights Initiative, entitled the Medical Civil Rights Act, would ensure the immediate delivery of emergency medical care for persons experiencing medical crises during law enforcement contact.
Its objective is not just to protect persons with health emergencies, but also law enforcement officers, medical personnel, and taxpayers, who often shoulder the burden and costs associated with compensating for avoidable deaths.
Accompanying this act is a bill to amend data reporting requirements, so that the delivery of emergency medical care to persons held in custody may be studied. Currently, it is unknown what medical care they receive in these circumstances, and more broadly, why they die.
Clearly, timely medical care could have prevented many of the custodial deaths in the United States, such as may be seen below.
The Medical Civil Rights Initiative is committed to establishing medical civil rights in every state and federally, with the aspiration that one day there would be a right to well-being embedded in the U.S. Constitution.
For more information or to support our efforts,
Please contact: initiative@medcivilrights.org
Donations can be made by Venmo to @medcivilrights or by mailing a check to the Medical Civil Rights Initiative, 398 Columbus Ave, Box 317, Boston MA 02116.
The Initiative carries forward the hope and vision of the co-founder, the late Dr. Robert G. Dluhy, that no more lives should be needlessly lost.