THE death of a prisoner who pleaded with officers to take him to hospital could have been prevented, an inquest heard.
The family of Thokozani Shiri, 21, said a short-term prison term became a death sentence after an inquest jury concluded a series of failings and neglect caused his death.
Essex Coroners Court heard staff at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which provides healthcare at Chelmsford Prison, were “neglectful” towards Shiri.
Shiri, of Essex, was HIV positive but the prison healthcare failed for months to provide lifeline medication, despite knowing he was dependant on it, during two periods of imprisonment in 2017 and 2018.
The 21-year-old died on April 14, 2019 from an HIV-related infection.
EPUT chief officer Paul Scott has since offered his apologies for the incident and said his condolences remain with Shiri’s loved ones, adding lessons will be learnt.
Shiri’s treating consultant in the community gave evidence to the inquest on Wednesday stating he was “HIV is very treatable… It shouldn’t have happened”.
As his health deteriorated, Shiri told a prison officer “I can’t breathe. I need to go to hospital” but an ambulance was not called until five days later.
Despite that conversation being recorded, the prison officer has still not been identified by the Ministry of Justice and all CCTV footage of April 7 was overwritten and was unavailable to the inquest.
Assistant Coroner Michelle Brown told the inquest while in an induced coma, the prison restrained Shiri unnecessarily with handcuffs.
The Prison and Probation Ombudsman concluded in a damning report “this is a case in which a young man died a preventable death as a result of what I can only describe as neglect by healthcare staff, and whose mother was then treated with gross insensitivity by prison staff”.
When reaching their conclusions, the jury found five separate failings had probably caused Shiri’s death, including failure to provide antiretroviral medication and other systematic failures.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Thoko Shiri. All deaths in custody are investigated, and where failings are found we work hard to improve.”
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