Indian-origin woman dies in US jail after 15-day hunger strike

[Judi Lynn]

Indian-origin woman dies in US jail after 15-day hunger strike

Chicago, Jan 28 (PTI)

An Indian-origin woman, who was being held at a Chicago jail for allegedly failing to show up for jury duty, has died in custody after a 15-day hunger strike.

52-year-old Lyvita Gomes, a former airline trainer for Delta Airlines, died in Lake County jail on January 3, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Funeral arrangements for Gomes, which have now been fixed, were earlier delayed until her relatives arrived from the United Kingdom this weekend, Alfredo Miranda, owner of Miranda Funeral Services, was quoted as saying.

Gomes, a native of Goa, was held after she ignored a jury summons last summer.
As a non-citizen, she was not even eligible to serve on a jury, but ignoring the summons started a chain of events that brought her to the Lake County Jail in December.

More:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/222654/indian-origin-woman-dies-us.html

[limpyhobbler]

1. wow

I do not know if this is .. a failure of the prison system or a careless culture and attitude towards individuals whatever their circumstance.

It's both.

I do not wish (the inquiry) to be a matter of reprisals but more a matter of learning the truth so that attitudes can change."

See I think I'd be looking for reprisals. Somebody should at a minimum

Police and immigration authorities shouldn't let people die on a hunger strike.

[blondie58]

14. even the cat shelter i volunteeer at

Will force feed a cat who has stopped eating. This is a travesty. Poor woman.

Ok just read the comments and article again. Sounds like she slipped through the cracks. So sad.

[quakerboy]

42. Why not?

While I think this is a ridiculous reason for a human being to die, I do not see any reason that authorities should be able to force someone to eat if they have made a choice not to, and have the will to refrain. I have no problem with them waving food in front of her face, leaving it there with her. Or in the case of a child or a person who can be judged mentally incompetent to make their own decisions.

But if a person, with full use of their faculty's, decides they wish to stop eating, I do not see where anyone ought to have the right to force sustenance on them.

[limpyhobbler]

44. they should move them to a hospital long before the point of death.

they should move them to a hospital long before the point of death.

It is not the responsibility of the jail to make that determination.

Also if this woman's story had been told to the media while it was going on, she never would have died.

So I think part of what I'm trying to say by "they shouldn't allow someone to die", is that prison authorities should not be allowed to keep such events secret from the outside world. To save her life, I believe they would not have had to force feed her. All that would have been necessary would have been for any person to have leaked the story to the news media during the 2 weeks she was not eating.

She apparently stopped eating on Dec. 14 and her public-defender lawyer did not even know she not eating until Dec. 27.
Within 2 days of the lawyer being informed, she was transferred out to a hospital.

The medical care at the jail is provided by a private company (Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions) who had a similar case last year of someone dying of not eating in custody.

See also post number 43 if you like.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-20/news/ct-met-inmate-starves-20120120_1_hunger-strike-food-and-water-lake-county-jail

[quakerboy]

51. That seems fair

I was only responding to the blanket "Police and immigration authorities shouldn't let people die on a hunger strike", rather than the specific case. I feel that if a person wishes to make their point via not eating, even to the point of death, and they have the capacity to make that decision and the will to hold to it, that should be their personal right.

However, I absolutely agree that such things, if the person desires, should be made available as public info. And the basic idea of a private company providing medical care is problematic enough, then apply it in a prison setting, and its even less ok by me.

[sabrina 1]

52. They should have released her from prison. That most likely would have ended it. It sounds like

she never should have been there in the first place. If she was summoned for jury duty but was not a citizen, it is not she who belongs in jail. Someone made a mistake by calling her. Their mistake is not her responsibility.

I hope her family sues them as individuals, not the taxpayers who always end up paying for these travesties while the perps get away with not even a slap on the wrist.

[quakerboy]

53. I am not disagreeing with you

My only disagreement was with the idea that authorities should not allow a person to refuse to eat. A person of sound mind who chooses to go on a hunger strike, whether detained or not, is well within my understanding of their rights.

[Ghost Dog]

2. This is what Police States

are like.

Especially Racist Police States.

[sarcasmo]

16. +1

[lsewpershad]

27. +1 more

[limpyhobbler]

45. I'm starting to see that. nt

[tawadi]

48. Her brother asked, "Would they have done this to an American?"

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/jan/220112-Why-did-they-let-Lyvita-Gomes-die.htm

[Kurmudgeon]

3. That is totally insane, she wasn't even eligible for jury duty!!!

Has basic common sense and compassion went out the window in this country???

[carla]

4. Yes.

That is why my husband, a man who once really loved America, won't even go there to see his dying relatives. The nation is dead.
Obama can do all he can to help, but the rightwing bastards destroyed America, the beautiful and replaced it with this turd. Sorry.

[lovuian]

23. We are a country of prisons

and this woman
should never have been in one

[Vinca]

5. I can't believe they just let her die . . . over freaking jury duty. Astonishing.

[msanthrope]

41. She wasn't in jail for missing jury duty, but for resisting arrest.

It's a pretty convoluted trail.

[magical thyme]

6. as usual, if you read the story they didn't "just let her die"

She did not die starving herself in jail.

As soon as she showed signs of health issues she was transferred to a medical facility.
She died after 5 days at the medical facility.

My question is why she ignored the summons, even though she wasn't eligible.

Mistakes happen all the time. You get a court summons, never mind 3 of them, you don't ignore them in any country. You show up, along with your paperwork showing you have a work visa, etc. In person, with your paperwork, the officials generally will says oopsie and let you go.

Her friends/co-workers said she showed signs of mental instability.

[erodriguez]

7. Wow. Blame the victim much?

[Robb]

8. It's not blaming the victim to wonder why she didn't respond.

I wonder why, too. I don't think she deserved to die.

[IamK]

9. I would blame the victim.. She did not eat and she died.... I can link the two n/t

[yardwork]

11. But why didn't she eat? What happened in that prison to cause her to go on a hunger strike?

[IamK]

15. she refused food from day 1 in jail....

Hunter said Gomes refused food and water from her first day in jail, saying she was on a hunger strike. On Dec. 21, after showing signs of weight loss, Gomes was moved to the jail medical unit, where Correct Care Solutions staff checked her vital signs every four hours.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/relatives-want-answers-in-jail-hunger-strike-death/850ca4f69d9d4a75a8b99516c3b8c02f

[lovuian]

24. So we paid all these money

for monitoring a woman on hunger strike for a jury summons
absolutely ridiculous

when she would be alive paying taxes and released

[EFerrari]

33. Correct Care Solutions.

It's very interesting because when I search for stories on this company, the first six pages of the search is their PR on the Google. That must cost a lot of money. Makes me wonder what they are trying to push down.

But here is an article from 2005 about privatized prison health care:

As Health Care in Jails Goes Private, 10 Days Can Be a Death Sentence
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/nyregion/27jail.html?pagewanted=print&position

[songbookz]

17. Religious reasons

Being from India, there's a good chance her religion required vegetarianism.

[XemaSab]

37. I'm sure that they serve things other than pork chops

[tawadi]

40. Goans are primarily Catholic

"They found some jewelry, an image of the Virgin Mary and photos that recalled her family in India.."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-inmate-starves-20120120,0,717538.story

[magical thyme]

26. not blaming the victim. and not knee-jerk blaming the jail.

try reading the article. more to this story than the flaming headline.

[crikkett]

10. if info were that important it should have been quoted in OP

not to get into a meta-discussion but this isn't a link farm.

[crikkett]

12. "mental instability"

life-threatening medical conditions can change people's personalities.

[limpyhobbler]

19. They let her not eat for at least a week before moving her to a medical facility.

That's where they messed up.

[MADem]

21. She thought she was in court for tennis lessons. She was off the page, poor thing.

See links downthread.

[Demonaut]

13. not enough info, Indian News services have been unreliable in the past

I see nothing stating why she was on a hunger strike...very odd article

[limpyhobbler]

18. You have trouble distinguishing between reliable and unreliable news services in India.

That's understandable.

Why do you think she was on hunger strike?
The most obvious thing I can think of is she was protesting the fact that she was being held without a good reason.

Maybe you would be more comfortable with this long article in the Chicago Tribune.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-20/news/ct-met-inmate-starves-20120120_1_hunger-strike-food-and-water-lake-county-jail

[Demonaut]

22. "trouble"? anyway, I've read another article post in this thread but it really does not

state the reason she was on the hunger strike, it very well could be she was upset about the arrest
but I it might be something we've not heard yet
please try not to be condescending in your replies

[limpyhobbler]

25. you have got a point

It would have been nicer if I said "We have trouble distinguishing between...". I should have said it like that instead.

Also yeah we don't know why she was on hunger strike. You have a point.

[dipsydoodle]

29. Even her friends didn't know why she went on hunger strike.

It will remain a mystery.

[MADem]

20. This is a very strange story, and here's more on it. She was being deported. She hadn't worked for

DELTA in years. She was mentally ill, in a big way (she thought she was in court for tennis lessons?).

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-20/news/ct-met-inmate-starves-20120120_1_hunger-strike-food-and-water-lake-county-jail

...Funeral home workers cleaned out Lyvita Gomes' hotel room Thursday. They found some jewelry, an image of the Virgin Mary and photos that recalled her family in India and her days as a successful, sharply dressed airline trainer.

They also found stacks of mail, much of it unopened, going back seven years. In that pile was the jury summons that marked the beginning of Gomes' fatal downward spiral....She never confided any psychological problems to her family, her brother said, even after Delta laid her off about five years ago (the airline did not respond to questions). She moved to Illinois, and in 2007 used her still-valid visa and other identification to get a driver's license, according to the Illinois secretary of state's office.

Gomes didn't go quietly, the report says. She refused to offer her hands for the cuffs and struggled as the deputy led her to his car. That earned her a misdemeanor resisting arrest charge.

She spent two days in the County Jail, where officials learned her visa had expired. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said the agency started deportation proceedings and released her.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/20/lake-county-sherif-on-defensive-after-womans-death-from-hunger-strike/

The Chicago Tribune reports the former flight attendant supervisor had a history of mental health issues and thought she was in court for tennis lessons.

Lake County Jail officials transferred Gomes to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan a day before she was to appear in court, to determine whether she was mentally fit to stand trial, the Daily Herald reported earlier this month.

[Justice wanted]

28. HOW the FREAK did she get summoned to Jury duty when she isn't even a citizen?!

[limpyhobbler]

30. it was because she had a drivers license

[Justice wanted]

31. My state does it too and I think it is absolutely CRAZY that they pick jury duty from DMV records

They use to do it by voter rolls in my state before the DMV thing. I think that is more reasonable. AT LEAST you get U.S. citizens.

Or am I mixed up here? I thought you had to be a citizen to be on jury duty?

[limpyhobbler]

32. you do.

You have to be a citizen to be on jury duty. But they call the jury pool in from driver's licences and then if you're not a citizen they excuse you from duty. In Illinois. I read it in the Chicago Tribune. There is a link to the article in this thread somewhere...

This lady unfortunately read the letter and it said in the letter that citizens can not serve on the jury. But she was still supposed to show up for selection and the be excused.

It seems like she made have made an error by not showing up.

[Justice wanted]

34. True but shouldn't she have been arranged by a judge during that 15 days who might have realized

the error or perhaps her misunderstanding and dismissed the charges or something?

[limpyhobbler]

36. yeah you know I really think this case is alot more gruesome than some of the other posts in this

thread have felt. I really think that letting her go 7 or 10 days without eating in jail was inexcusable. There is no way in my mind that I can imaging her going a week without eating and someone not noticing.

I guess her visa was expired and my feeling is there was some racism and xenophobia that played into this.

I feel this would probably not have happened if she were a white American-born person in the same situation.

[msanthrope]

39. Well, she wasn't arrested for jury duty but for 'resisting' when the civil warrant was served.

See the links below--a judge would have sorted the jury issue out in a minute, but she apparently went a bit bonkers in the process of service of a civil warrant....

THAT led to her actual arrest, on the charge of 'resisting'....see post # 38 below.

[Fool Count]

50. I got the summons though not eligible to serve (Canadian living in the US).

I sent them a letter explaining my situation and never got another one again.

[tawadi]

35. "her brother described her as optimistic, helpful and high-achieving..

she studied biochemistry and education in college, wrote a math textbook.."

What a waste of a bright mind. What a sad chain of events.

[msanthrope]

38. She wasn't in jail for missing jury duty, but for resisting arrest.

It's a pretty convoluted trail, but it looks like it went something like this--

***She was sent juror summons.

***She ignored it.

***She was served a civil warrant.

***In the process of the service of that warrant, she was belligerent, and resisted the deputies.

***She was arrested for said behavior and booked on the charge of 'resisting.'

***When booked into county jail, she did not list any family.

***ICE had a hold on her, so when she was booked, her name popped.

***She was released into federal custody.

***ICE interviewed her but did not detain her. (She may have appeared in front of a magistrate and been given a date. Her status is unclear.)

***She did not appear on the charge of 'resisting', so a warrant was issued.

***She was rearrested.

***At the jail, she declared her hunger strike when being re-booked. She was moved to the medical unit.

***Her mental competency hearing was moved up, and she was moved to the hospital.

***Her body went unclaimed for a few weeks.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120108/news/701089816/

[limpyhobbler]

43. sorry that's not quite right based on the Chicago Tribune

***At the jail, she declared her hunger strike when being re-booked. She was moved to the medical unit.

The Chicago Tribune says she was arrested for that final time (for failure to appear) on Dec. 14.
And then on Dec. 21, after showing signs of weight loss, Gomes was moved to the jail medical unit.

So that means for 7 days she did not eat, and was not moved to medical.

Then while in the medical unit from Dec 21 to Dec 27, she continued not to eat.
She should have been moved to a hospital.
Also they could have got a court order to feed her intravenously, but did not.
Also her lawyer should have been informed that she was not eating.
On Dec. 27, the jail told the public defender's office about Gomes' refusal to eat — the first her lawyers had heard of the hunger strike.

Two days later on Dec. 29 she was moved to the hospital, on the brink of death.
"The impression we got is that when she got to the hospital, her condition was so grave there was nothing they could do."

She died because of irresponsible behavior first at the regular jail, and then at the jail's medical unit.

Now check this out

Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions has a $2 million annual contract to provide the jail's medical care.

The company has been criticized for its handling of another inmate who stopped eating. Last year, it agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit alleging its nurses failed to properly care for a mentally ill man in Alexandria, Va., who died of dehydration after refusing food and water.

So they have done this before the the privatized prison medical service.
They have let a person die from not eating before.

My theory is this never would have happened to a white person.


http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-20/news/ct-met-inmate-starves-20120120_1_hunger-strike-food-and-water-lake-county-jail

[msanthrope]

46. Perhaps I was not clear--she was arrested in the first place for 'resisting' when the the civil

warrant was served on her..

Her 'failure to appear' arrest did not happen because she failed to appear at a JURY, but because she failed to appear in court to answer for the charge of 'resisting.'

When you don't show up at your court date on a criminal charge, the judge issues a bench warrant...that's what her final detention was based on, NOT the jury duty nonsense.

[limpyhobbler]

47. yeah you're right about all that. It was failure to appear for the charge of resisting. exactly.

Alot of that stuff I wrote wasn't really directed towards your post. The only part I was nitpicking was this:
"***At the jail, she declared her hunger strike when being re-booked. She was moved to the medical unit."

But importantly, 7 days of not eating went by from the time she was re-booked on Dec. 14 until she was moved to the medical unit on Dec 21. The timeline you had there made it seem like no time went by between those two events.

And then another 6 days of not eating went by in the medical unit before
"**Her mental competency hearing was moved up, and she was moved to the hospital. "

Everything you said was correct except the timeline. I just thought the timeline was not correct because it didn't show that a week went by before they moved her to the medical unit, and then another 6 days before they told anyone in the outside world (her public defender). They basically kept it a secret at the jail that this was going on. And that's why she died because when she did get to a hospital on Dec 29, there was nothing that could be done to save her.

The private company that provides the medical service in the jail has let someone die like this before, last year in Virginia.

The jail authorities are to blame. The private company, Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions, is even more to blame. They let this woman die without telling anyone outside of the prison that this was happening, until after she had not eaten for TWO WEEKS, when she was beyond saving.

[laureloak]

49. Sad, but it was her choice.

[tawadi]

55. Mental illness was not her choice.

[Marnie]

54. In the two cities where I have been called for jury duty, the list of those eliglble for

jury duty was based on voter registration.

How did an alien end up in the jury selection?

Any reason whey she didn't show?

[Wind Dancer]

56. Alien?????

You might want to READ the article!