Last July, Georgia nurses found Juan Carlos Ramirez Bibiano’s body in a puddle of his own excrement, and vomiting after being left in an outdoor cell in the summer heat, according to a lawsuit announced Thursday, which alleges that officers were negligent when they left Ramirez, 27, in an outdoor cell at Telfair State Prison for five hours without water, shade or ice, even as the outside temperature climbed to 96 degrees. That evening, Ramirez died of heart and lung failure caused by heat exposure, The Associated Press reports. The warden earlier that day directed officers to check on inmates, bring them water and ice and limit their time outside. The Department of Corrections reported that Ramirez died of natural causes, said Jeff Filipovits, one of the attorneys for Norma Bibiano, Ramirez's mother.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that starting in March, the Department of Corrections stopped immediately reporting the causes of inmate deaths. The attorneys for Ramirez's family said they have minimal information about the events leading up to his death. They aren’t sure which officers were in charge of Ramirez and whether officers brought Ramirez to an outdoor cell for routine or punitive purposes. “The number of deaths that are occurring in custody is galling, and the absolute lawlessness inside of prisons is a humanitarian crisis,” Filipovits said. “I don’t use those words lightly." Outside of Georgia, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has faced complaints of widespread dysfunction. The Associated Press found rampant sexual abuse, criminal misconduct from staff, understaffing, inmate escapes, COVID outbreaks and crumbling infrastructure inside prisons across the country.
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