DEAD IN CELL

NZ Truth, Issue 1199, 22 November 1928, Page 7

DEAD IN CELL

Prisoner's Pitiable Condition

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Representative)

A coroner's verdict such as thaf delivered by Magistrate Bartholomew concerning the death of a middle-aged man who was found dead m his ; cell at the Dunedin gaol on November 12, dispels every vestige of the nasty and extravagant suspicions against the p6lice which sometimes arise on such napless occasions. TN his verdict, Coroner Bartholomew "*■" definitely removed any suggestion of neglect or pert unctoriness ■on the part of the police. But m vie^v of an entirely different aspect of the sad occurrence, "Truth" must reluctantly, disclose certain unhappy circumstances surrounding the unfortunate^ man's presence and death m the cell. . It was. no doubt, - thoughtfulness which prompted the coroner to exclude from his verdict any reference to the deceased sufferihfi: from the ill-effect of alcoholism at the time of his death. Unfortunately,' this unpleasant side of the traffic affair must b» alluded to for

the purpose of allowing the public to .iudse for itself whether a. prison cell is a. proper place foL' a helpless victim of delirium tremens to be held m custo.dy under a magistrate's remand for seven days' .medical treatment. That the .deceased was on the extreme edge of acute "D.T.'s— if not actually a very advanced case— was quite apparent from his pitiable appearance m the police court on the morning of his death. (He was brought to the watch-house on 'Saturday evening, -and arraigned before a magistrate on the Monday). The medicine prescribed *by Police Surgeon Evans, when he first attended the man at the prison on the Sunday morning, was referred to by police witnesses at the inquest, as "the D.T.s medicine."

The Law's Fatal Formalities

The inquest revealed that no effort was spared by the gaolers to make the man as comfortable as possible within their ' limited 'resources. ' But prison warders can hardly be expected to transform themselves into nurses or hospital order-lies, and regular visits to the man's cell, with suitable nourishment at meal times, were the only means of the gaolers giving the man attention. . On the Sunday the medical officervisited the and his next visit took place after the court proceedings ion the Monday, when, according to. the 'doctor's evidence at the inquest, 'the man was sleeping and was not disturbed. The slumber, it is reasonable to assume, was due to the effects of the "D.T.'s" medicine, which, usually takes the form of a sleeping draught. The next time the man was seen by the medical officer was when the police called him a little after ' nine o'clock the same evening,' 'when life was extinct

The man's condition at the time of his distressing end prompts two clear questions: (1) Should a man, shaking violently m every limb, shuffling: his feet because he can hardly lift them, gaping wildly and jerkiiy around him arid obviously m a vortex of mental stress, be compelled to totter into the dock m a crowded police court for the purpose of hearing a police officer ask a magistrate for seven days' remand for medical treatment, because accused is not m a fit state to enter a plea? If this is m accordance with legal requirements, all that can be said; is that the law holds formalities more sacred than human life. ' (2) When a magistrate consents to such a request, is a police cell and a bottle of "D.T." medicine the law's Idea of medical treatment? ' If gaol and jim-jam dope are the sum total of the State's efforts to alleviate the unenviable plight of one of its" subjects, there is something Hacking m legislative adjustment.