PRISON MUSTN'T BE A DEATH SENTENCE

Though pleading amid gasps, asthmatic inmate Michelle Greer didn't get the
medical help she sought shortly before she died at the Taycheedah
Correctional Institution. This incident cries out for an independent probe,
as lawmakers are suggesting.

Its aims should include: to set the record straight on what happened; to
ferret out any wrongdoing, whether moral, civil or criminal; to identify any
flaws in the system; and, if necessary, to recommend changes to prevent
repeats.

In no way does the routine review by the Department of Corrections suffice.
For one thing, outside probes are always a good idea when serious wrongdoing
is at issue.

For another, the agency has stirred up doubts about whether its mind is
open. Warden Kristine Krenke called the staff's response to Greer's health
problem "appropriate." The prison's security chief used the term
"exemplary." Dubious adjectives for barring an asthmatic in the throes of an
attack from the health center and making her walk the length of a football
field to her bunk.

What's more, the Journal Sentinel had to tug too mightily to extract the
facts surrounding Greer's death, which took place on Feb. 2. The
department's reluctance to part with the details does not inspire confidence
that it's conducting a no-holds-barred inquiry, whose results it would share
with the public.

Officials must work out the form of the investigation. An inquest by Fond du
Lac County authorities? Hearings by a legislative committee? An examination
by the Legislative Audit Bureau? An investigation by the state Department of
Justice? The best bet may be a combination of inquiries - for instance, one
into the specific circumstances of Greer's death; another into the broad
issue of the adequacy of health services in prisons.

Michelle Greer was no angel, but she was no devil, either. She did not
deserve to die. Her main problem appeared to have been a drug habit that she
could not afford.

According to her lawyer, Greer had thought prison was the best way for her
to get her life together. As it turns out, she was wrong. Prison was a death
sentence.

And Wisconsin doesn't permit capital punishment, a penalty officials must
ensure prisons don't inflict inadvertently.