GLOSSING OVER MISTREATMENT IN THE MAGBIE CASE

Jonathan Magbie was a 27-year-old man who was paralyzed from the neck
down as a result of a childhood accident. Although he had never been
convicted of a criminal offense and although he required private
nursing care for as much as 20 hours a day, Magbie was given a 10-day
sentence in the D.C. jail in September 2004 by D.C. Superior Court
Judge Judith E. Retchin for possession of a marijuana cigarette. He
died in city custody four days later. His story has been the subject
of several previous columns.

Earlier this week Edward D. Reiskin, deputy mayor for public safety
and justice, provided D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large)
and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairmen, respectively, of the
council's Health and Judiciary committees, with the findings from the
D.C. Department of Corrections (DOC) investigation into the care
provided Magbie from Sept. 20 to Sept. 24, 2004.

Actually, to call the Corrections Department's report an
"investigation" is like describing a BB gun as an AK-47. The
eight-page document produced by the department's Office of Internal
Affairs attempts to explain away a more extensive and highly critical
investigation into Magbie's death that D.C. Inspector General Charles
J. Willoughby conducted last October. Willoughby's report and the
lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and two lawyers
on behalf of Magbie's mother, Mary R. Scott, are more credible. They
provide real insight into Magbie's neglectful treatment by the
criminal justice system.

Now to the Department of Corrections "investigation." The findings
were dutifully and uncritically transmitted to the council by
Reiskin, who, incidentally, complained to lawmakers that "the
investigation was hindered by legal advice provided to [the
contractor medical staff] by its counsel not to release any
information to DOC regarding this issue due to pending litigation."

That clampdown on salient information did not, however, stop
Corrections from arriving on the scene after Willoughby completed his
extensive investigation and producing an Internal Affairs document
that exonerates or at least gives a virtuous appearance to many of
the actions by staff and employees at the corrections facility where
Magbie was confined. But even Corrections couldn't cover all the
participants with whitewash.

In some cases, Corrections' critical findings were accompanied by
recommended disciplinary actions that have all the harshness of a
beating with a wet noodle.

Internal Affairs found:

. There were instances in which Magbie's medical care was not
documented. But the nurses culpable in the acts of omission couldn't
be identified because the medical contractor, paid by the Corrections
Department with D.C. tax dollars, wouldn't give access to the
contractor's employees.

. The associate medical director of the jail where Magbie was
confined knew about Magbie's vulnerable medical condition and that he
needed acute care immediately, but failed to notify higher-ups. The
associate medical director, the report noted, resigned last October.
Undeterred, Corrections bravely directed the medical contractor to
"place a letter of reprimand in the doctor's Official Personnel File"
and to determine "any other appropriate disciplinary action to be
pursued against the doctor."

. Correctional and medical staff provided written memos to the
Corrections Department director stating that they never saw Magbie's
cell door locked while he was in the unit. (It should have remained
unlocked, because there was no way that Magbie, a quadriplegic, could
reach the emergency button.) Corrections discovered information that
contradicted the staff-written memos: Magbie's cell door had in fact
been locked, in violation of doctor's orders. For their lying,
Corrections fearlessly instructed the warden, disciplinary action was
to be taken against the two officers and a disciplinary letter placed
in the personnel file of each.

. A physician in the Corrections facility housing Magbie told the
inspector general that he was unaware of Magbie's return from Greater
Southeast Community Hospital, where he had been taken as an emergency
patient during his first night in jail. It turns out, the Corrections
report noted, that the physician did see Magbie upon his return. That
physician, thundered the Corrections report, "will no longer be
permitted on DOC premises . . . this action is to take place posthaste."

As for the Corrections Department's decision to keep the
ventilator-dependent Magbie confined for four days to the
Correctional Treatment Facility, where no ventilator or appropriate
medical care was available? The "investigation," done by Corrections
staff and passed along by Reiskin, gave the rest of the nurses,
physicians and staff a pass.

Judge Retchin? She was cleared by the Commission on Judicial
Disabilities and Tenure.

Say this much for ol' D.C., it takes care of its own.

If justice is to be had in this case, it won't be found in D.C.
agencies. Better to look to the U.S. District Court for the District
of Columbia. That's where the Jonathan Magbie lawsuit is filed.