A person who was lodged near a man who died in the Springfield prison this week said the man was twice seen by medical staff and begged for help with breathing problems before he died, but was told to stop complaining by a guard who threatened to send him to solitary confinement.
David Mitchell, 46, of Rutland died after he had “difficulty breathing” while incarcerated at Southern State Correctional Facility on Monday morning, according to Vermont State Police.
An autopsy is pending to determine his cause of death, and the state police, Department of Corrections and the Defender General’s Office are investigating, as is standard procedure.
John White, who said he was lodged in a tier above and one cell over from Mitchell in Springfield at the time of his death, said Mitchell had ongoing respiratory problems and twice received medical attention Monday morning, including a check of his vital signs.
In the hour before his death, Mitchell complained that he couldn’t breathe, White said, his pleas growing in intensity even after he was seen by medical staff.
“It got to the point where he was panicking and crying, begging to be taken to the hospital,” said White, who spoke to VTDigger by phone on Wednesday.
A corrections officer told Mitchell to “go in your cell and lay down, you’re fine,” according to White, who was transferred to Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans on Tuesday.
White said the officer told Mitchell that if he kept complaining, he would “go to the hole,” which refers to solitary confinement.
Nick Deml, commissioner of the Department of Corrections, denied any misconduct in Mitchell’s death.
“From the initial review that we’ve done so far, that doesn’t exactly line up with the facts as we know them, or the camera footage,” he said. He acknowledged that the cameras do not capture audio, calling it a “limitation.”
Deml said Mitchell had a “robust medical history.” The 46-year-old interacted with medical staff once on Monday morning during a “normal morning medication delivery,” according to the commissioner, at which point he requested further care. Medical staff visited Mitchell “a short time later,” Deml said.
“Some treatment was provided that morning, and when the medical staff left, he was in good shape, under their telling of it,” Deml said. “Our officers also didn’t notice any issues with him at that point.”
Deml said corrections officials are continuing to collect information.
“There hasn’t been any allegation of misconduct or any information yet that seems to indicate that the situation wasn’t managed properly,” Deml told VTDigger. “If that were to come to be, we’d certainly take action on that.”
Health care at the state’s prisons is delivered by VitalCore Health Strategies. Questions to the company on Wednesday were referred to Dr. Jessica Sherman, vice president of VitalCore operations in Vermont. Sherman did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday afternoon seeking comment.
White’s account also differs from the state’s in terms of timing. In a press release on Monday, Vermont State Police said Mitchell was “found unresponsive in his cell during a check at 9:27” that morning.
“Corrections staff provided emergency medical care and called first responders to the prison,” police wrote. “Lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, and the inmate was pronounced dead at Southern State at 10:10 a.m.”
On Wednesday, Deml said he believed those times were accurate.
State police were notified of Mitchell’s death at 10:24 a.m., state police spokesperson Adam Silverman said in response to questions on Wednesday. He noted that corrections staff had interactions with Mitchell on Monday morning prior to finding him unresponsive.
White, on the other hand, said that Mitchell was found unresponsive about an hour earlier — at 8:35 Monday morning — and that he heard medical responders pronounce Mitchell dead at 9:40 a.m.
Silverman declined to answer additional questions about the case, citing the ongoing investigation.
White said he and Mitchell first bonded in prison over having similar respiratory health problems. “That’s how we first met,” White said, recalling that Mitchell had a nebulizer and sought medical attention for his trouble breathing multiple times a week “to the point where an emergency would be called.”
For White, the quality of medical care inside the Springfield prison falls well below what’s acceptable. Like Mitchell, White said he has struggled to receive medical attention for his respiratory issues.
“The lack of humanity is really the biggest issue,” he said. “It scares me to see this happen to him and to think this could possibly happen to me.”
Earlier this month, the corrections department announced it was switching its health care services provider from VitalCore to Wellpath LLC.
“We always are striving for continuous improvement in our health care system,” Deml said Wednesday, when asked if he was satisfied with the quality of care provided in Vermont’s prisons. “We recognize we’re dealing with a much sicker population, a much older population, and the needs of the population have changed quite dramatically.”
Mitchell is the 12th person to die while in custody at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield since January 2022, according to state police and corrections department reports. The prison includes an infirmary and a housing unit for elderly and chronically ill people.
Mitchell’s death came a week after the Department of Corrections placed Mike Lyon, superintendent of the Springfield prison, on paid leave amid a misconduct investigation. Corrections officials have shared little about the probe, other than to say it is not related to the recent deaths of incarcerated people.
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose department oversees the state’s Prisoners’ Rights Office, said Wednesday that the office’s investigation into Mitchell’s death is in its earliest stages.
“I haven’t heard anything yet,” he said. “I don’t have any information at all yet and I wouldn’t expect to.”
He said that his office’s investigation could take three to six months to complete and that investigators would talk to incarcerated witnesses once they identify them.
White’s account of Mitchell’s death resembles that of Kenneth Johnson, who died in a Vermont prison in Newport in 2019 after repeatedly complaining that he couldn’t breathe.
A correctional officer told Johnson that if he “did not knock it off” he would be placed in the holding area at the prison, a form of solitary confinement. A law firm contracted by the state found that corrections staff did not do enough to help him.
“It just is not sufficient that an inmate complains persistently and credibly of not being able to breathe for a period of some hours, consistently does not see a doctor, does not go to the hospital, and then later on dies,” Tristram Coffin, an attorney and the lead investigator, said in announcing the findings in 2020.
Deml, the corrections commissioner, disputed the similarity.
“We’re at the very early stages, and certainly we can uncover new information,” he said, “but this does not appear to be analogous to the Kenneth Johnson situation in any way.”
Mitchell had been held in Springfield since November 2022 for allegedly violating his probation related to a charge of larceny from a person, as well as a charge of misdemeanor theft, according to state police.
Alan Keays contributed reporting.
