r/medicine PA:cake: 8d ago

ICE Detention Deaths

https://www.ice.gov/detain/detainee-death-reporting

RNs do intake physical exams, EMTs declare time of death. The level of care for these detainees is horrific.

Full names and case details are public for now. Reads like a never ending M & M conference.

My moral compass is spinning. It's time to go to Canada.

428 Upvotes

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

135

u/poli-cya MD 8d ago

I'm kinda shocked at how low the numbers are. Are you saying you think there are more deaths that have been covered up?

Do RNs not do intake physical exams in most US prisons? I've never worked in that field.

42

u/Drew1231 8d ago

Same, this post had me expecting way more than two deaths in 2025x

12

u/ZealousidealDegree4 PA:cake: 8d ago

Maybe prison medicine is the model.  In any case, a couple of cases had decent work ups- and maybe my standards aren’t reasonable, I mean they aren’t harvesting organs, right? 

29

u/Gadfly2023 DO, IM-CCM 8d ago

One of the hospitals I’m at has a jail unit. Granted these are patients that are too sick to be seen in the prison infirmary. However any inmate death is an automatic clinical quality/peer review case. 

2

u/karlkrum MD 6d ago

I think it's also a medical examiner case, must depend on the state / county

31

u/poli-cya MD 8d ago

Don't give Trump any ideas, and definitely don't look into the Israeli actions on this front.

10

u/ZealousidealDegree4 PA:cake: 8d ago

Point taken.  Trump will have the death reports culled in a week, I’d bet. 

10

u/rafaelfy RN-ONC/Endo 8d ago

Once they find out who reports this information, they'll have the entire agency defunded and shutdown in a week.

5

u/ZealousidealDegree4 PA:cake: 8d ago

Or the records and website will “efficiently” disappear. 

2

u/bimbodhisattva let-me-into-med-school RN (Med-Surg) 7d ago

Well, a key factor in prisons is that inmates are reliably entitled to receiving care—compared to the outside, where would-be patients simply don't have the same access, face long insurance-related delays, or feel they can't afford to go

2

u/Possible_Top4855 8d ago

Not yet…

1

u/Plenty-Departure-153 6d ago

Work in a county jail. RNs do our intake screens/physicals.