Sheriff David Clarke got virtually a free ride from the media when conditions in the county jail — which he runs — were deemed so bad that the county was held in contempt of court.
And God knows what the County Board was thinking when it took the messed-up House of Correction and gave it to Clarke to run. As bad as the previous House administration may have been, Clarke is bound to make matters worse. The man is a disaster.
Now comes the news that Clarke and team are refusing to release the autopsy report on Marshall Wilburn, a homeless man with tuberculosis who died in the Houe, for totally specious reasons. The death has not been ruled one of natural causes, according to Clarke spokeswoman Kim Brooks. Wilburn also may have died of something else, she said.
So what if either of those things were true? Let’s say Wilburn was murdered — do the investigators at the Sheriff’s Department think that making that information public will give secret information to the murderer that he (or she) can use to his advantage? And if Wilburn died of a heart attack instead of TB — why on earth wouldn’t you just say so?
Let’s hear it for Mayor Tom Barrett, who says the he will seek legal action to go after the records if Clarke doesn’t cough them up.
Meanwhile, there are 300 people wondering about their health who could potentially be reassured by a little information that Clarke doesn’t want to give them.
It is really surprising someone as small-minded as Clarke could have a brain cramp this large — it seems to defy the laws of nature.
Wilburn was sent to to the Housel to ensure he took his medication because he had contagious TB. The JS today reported that he was in his isolation cell when he died, so at least he was not in the general population. He apparently required assistance with many tasks, though, like getting his own food. He had enough contact with enough people to require that 300(!) of them be kept under at least minimal medical observation. Isolating individuals with tuberculosis is not unusual and their are safety precautions that can be taken to minimize the risk to workers. Here’s a piece related to nursing precautions, but surely the basic precautions discussed in it should have been in place at the House.
But I’ll just betcha they weren’t.
Will Clarke skate again?