The Hand of Justice
Posted: Friday, July 29, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
James Cotton, 60, of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, has filed a federal lawsuit against the county jail in Pittsburgh and Allegheny Correctional Health Services, which contracts with the jail to provide medical treatment to inmates. He claims that mistreatment by guards and incompetent medical attention caused the loss of his hand. Cotton is currently serving three to six years in a state prison for failing to register as a sex offender and other crimes.
Cotton’s lawsuit is short on details. He claims he does not know the names of the two guards or which one tightened the cuffs. He does not specify when the incident happened, except that it occurred in the year leading up to the amputation. Neither does the lawsuit say which hand was amputated, but that should be relatively easy to determine.
Cotton is seeking $5 million for “mental and emotional injury damages (and) actual damages.” He claims the hand was removed on August 18, 2009 “due to the inadequate medical care, excessive force (and) physical injury.”
Allegheny Correctional Health Services, a nonprofit organization, is chaired by Dr. Bruce Dixon, the director of the Allegheny County Health Department. The agency was the focus of several stories in the past year. Inmates accused the jail of providing “insufficient or inattentive” medical care. The jail had five inmates die in both 2009 and 2010, more than double the statewide average. Three of the deaths were suicides. The jail reported 34 suicide attempts over those years.
We can only hope there is a law library and a literate, willing inmate at the facility where Mr. Cotton now resides to help him prepare his case and type up his depositions.
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