When Tom Keith was District Attorney of Forsyth County, N.C., in 2000, he filed and then dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against a corporation providing medical care at the county jail. The dismissal came with an agreement: the company, Correctional Medical Services, would give Forsyth County $200,000 to ensure that “the medical unit at the jail is the best in the nation.” On July 8, when Keith’s successor Jim O’Neill announced that a nurse and five officers were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of inmate John Neville, Keith was upset, reports the Raleigh News & Observer. “This really bothered me because this is absolutely a preventable death,” Keith said. “And why 25 years later haven’t we learned our lessons?”
Keith’s comments were made days before Forsyth County renewed its contract with WellPath, the jail’s current medical provider and one with its own history of trouble at the Forsyth jail and across the nation. Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough supports continuation of WellPath’s work and says he appreciates the changes the company has made to meet Forsyth County’s needs. Neville’s cellmate woke up to him thrashing on the floor. Neville, 56, died two days later on Dec. 4, 2019. An autopsy report blamed Neville’s death on jail employees’ response to his medical crisis. A nurse told Neville that he was having a seizure. Instead of taking him to a medical facility, Neville was wheeled to a suicide-watch room where jailers laid him on his stomach, secured his arms behind his back and raised his legs to his wrists. An autopsy report said that within four minutes he stopped moving. He repeatedly told staff that he couldn’t breathe. He was ignored. The report said Neville was in the same position for 12 minutes before employees realized he was telling the truth. He stopped breathing and his heart also stopped.