The Homicide of an Unknown Name Inmate

A California State report¹ titled, Analysis of 2012 Inmate Death Reviews in the California Prison Healthcare System, published on August 8, 2013 and authored by Dr. Kent Imai, MD, a Consultant to the California Prison Receivership, contains an excerpt on page 13 under Section D, Possibly preventable deaths in 2012, does not provide the inmates name, but does state cause of death as prolonged hypothermia:

16. A 56 year old patient with severe mental illness on psychoactive medication (risperadol) died of hypothermia. Despite having been seen several times in the previous months with a low body temperature (ranging from 96 degrees F. to as low as 84.3 degrees F. on the day of death), providers and nursing staff did not adequately monitor or manage the patient's hypothermia.

Chronic Hypothermia?

The human body will do everything it can to maintain a body temperature of 98.6 degrees F. In the case of this inmate, whose name is not provided, his body was battling the cold and the cold won and forced his body temperature lower. He had no way to stay alive in the cold cell.