The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that its inspector general’s office will investigate the Federal Bureau of Prisons following a judge’s excoriation of a warden at a Texas prison who let an inmate waste away from untreated cancer.
The DOJ stated in a statement that its Office of Inspector General (OIG) “is investigating the circumstances surrounding the release from prison and subsequent death of Frederick Mervin Bardell, who was released from the Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville, Texas, on February 8, 2021, and died nine days later.”
“In an order dated October 4, 2022, Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr., in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, who had previously reviewed Mr. Bardell’s petitions for compassionate release, recommended that the attorney general, the OIG, or other appropriate investigative offices undertake an examination into the conditions of Mr. Bardell’s confinement and treatment, and alleged misrepresentations to the court,” the statement continued.
In his order, Dalton wrote that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and Seagoville warden Kristi Zook “should be deeply ashamed of the circumstances surrounding the last stages of Mr. Bardell’s incarceration and indeed his life.”
A federal judge said the Bureau of Prison’s treatment of a man w/cancer was so bad it was “inconsistent w/the moral values of a civilized society.”
What did BOP do? I ignored his rectal bleeding for over a year. It was cancer.
He died.https://t.co/cfsfNVeRqc
— Keri Blakinger (@keribla) October 11, 2022
According to The Washington Post:
Bardell was serving the majority of a 12-year sentence in child pornography distribution. In late 2020, Bardell asked for compassionate release from Seagoville prison, Texas in order to receive specialized treatment in colon cancer. Justice Department lawyers argued against Bardell’s release, stating that he could receive adequate treatment in prison. Court papers also suggested that he might not have any cancer.
Months later, Bardell was much sicker and again asked Dalton, an Orlando-based federal judge who presided over Bardell’s sentencing, to release him for medical care. The judge granted permission for the Bureau of Prisons’ to create a plan of release. According to the judge instead, the Bureau of Prisons left Bardell on the Dallas-Fort Worth airport sidewalk.
Bardell was left with no wheelchair. Bardell was weak, and he was soiled with blood and feces all the way to Florida. After arriving in Florida, his parents rushed him directly to hospital. He died nine days later.
“With timely diagnosis and treatment, Mr. Bardell’s attesting physician assessed his chances of survival at 71%,” Dalton wrote in his October 4 order.
“No individual who is incarcerated by order of the court should be stripped of his right to simple human dignity as a consequence,” the judge argued. “The purposes of incarceration, which include rehabilitation, deterrence, and punishment, do not include depriving a human being of the fundamental right to a life with some semblance of dignity.”
“The treatment Mr. Bardell received in the last days of his life is inconsistent with the moral values of a civilized society,” he added, “and unworthy of the Department of Justice of the United States of America.”
