On the morning of January 9, Cedeño received a call from FDC officials: His sister was dead. He waited until Giulianna was home from band practice before breaking the news. As she came down the stairs after taking a shower, the 15-year-old found her living room full of family and friends. "What did I do wrong?" she asked.
Hernandez's family is awaiting an autopsy and considering its legal options. A few weeks after the death, FDC officials gave them a box of Hernandez's possessions. Among them was a small legal notepad with a list of the people she had asked for help near the end. "Dec. 23, 2012: Told Lieutenant gordo," reads the final entry. "Over a week & nothing."
"They violated my daughter's human rights," says Peña Nadal as she and Cedeño rifle through photos of Hernandez. "Either the people at the prison didn't bother to read her medical information or they simply didn't care."
FDC officials declined to comment on Hernandez's death. But her case is far from the only instance of medical neglect at the federal prison. Half a dozen lawyers all told New Times they have seriously ill clients who aren't getting proper medical attention at the FDC. One, a diabetic woman, keeps passing out because prison officials are giving her the wrong kind of insulin, according to court filings. Attorney Jonathan Kasen says he is fighting to keep a male client with heart and kidney ailments away from the FDC because a couple of months there "would be a death sentence."
Peña Nadal hopes that telling her daughter's story will force FDC officials to take inmates' health concerns more seriously.
"I lost my baby," she says, staring at a photo of a teenaged Keskea. "I don't want it to happen to anyone else."
Yes, she was a criminal but think about this: if you hit an animal with your vehicle and it doesn't die immediately, what do you do? Keskea was a human being. Why do we, as a free nation with all the rights and privileges we have, treat our pets better than we do other human beings? We have a law called "double jeopardy" that makes it illegal to try someone for the same crime twice. Sounds to me like Keskea was being made to suffer two sentences for her crime. This puts a travesty.
It just goes to show how we allways claim to have the best systom in the world yet this happens all the time all over the country county state and federal jails
I feel for the Woman's family. However, there are millions without proper healthcare or insurance and people bitch about our tax dollars going to The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (for dumb asses it is known as Obamacare- which is a whole other calamity). Our Tax dollars go to prisoner healthcare more often for all sorts of ailments and non emergency/cosmetic treatment before it goes to a law abiding citizen in need.
As a criminal defense lawyer I read this article and think that awareness needs to be raised about these issues.
I am sick to death over this story. I am appalled that the Judge showed such inhumanity. He had an opportunity to do the right thing and he didnt. How anyone can take the word of a Doctor that works in the prison system is beyond me. That woman deserved better than that kind of treatment. I am so sorry for her daughter. House arrest would have been the logical option in this case. I for one have learned a lesson from this that I will carry with me in decisions that I make in the future. Judge Scola is a discrace.
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@pez.castilla she did not get the death penalty. her crimes landed her in prison and the medical staff killed her. they should be charged with her death. had she not committed those crimes she would not have been there.
Holy hell. Some more people relishing in human mistreatment. This is incredible. I can imagine these people masturbating to mugshots online or something equally sick.
I assume there must be some sort of underlying psychological issue coupled with self-hate projected on the criminals by these folks. Whatever it is, something's not all right up there.
@disturbing Yep, you think we've gotten somewhere with humanity...until you read the comments. Did she break the law, absolutely. But her crimes did not merit the death penalty. I think there are people who simply do not feel empathy.
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mortgage fraud should not get someone a death sentence. Yes, she committed a crime, but that doesn't mean she was not entitled to medical care. This story is so sad, my thoughts are with the family and I hope the FPC has to pay!! Money can not replace this woman, but it can help the daughter. Murders get better treatment than this!!
@sac1975 Amen. the lack of empathy is disgusting. I don't know if it's misogyny at play, or simple sociopaths being their adorable selves.
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@pez.castilla @sac1975 some have no empathy for people that hurt others by criminal acts. that doesn't make them what you want them to be. Sure it s a shame she's dead but so are many others who weren't in prison.
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@Vargaz what gives you the right to call her a bitch? she was a daughter, a sister, and a mother. She committed a crime, but she did not deserve to die in jail.
@pez.castilla @Vargaz i said greedy bitch, not bitch. no one deserves to die in prison but those sentenced to death. prison didn't kill her being there did, had she not committed the crimes - stop making excuses, its too late. and where were all you "friends" when she was committing these crimes? Did you make her stop? Obviously not.
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@hammid00 I know she and she died for neglicted treatment at FDC becausse in several times she claimed for help on her diet and treatment and nothink happen .Poor girl and family it was horrible.Jesus bless her Family '
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