John Carbone: Blame chronic underfunding and staffing

Regarding the March 7 news article “Judge: Nurse unfairly fired”: I was director of mental health for North Carolina’s prisons for eight years until hastily shuffled to a position of irrelevance in the finger-pointing frenzy following the Michael Anthony Kerr death.

The spate of reflexive employee firings, many later overturned in court, shows how the state prefers to conveniently blame low- and mid-level providers for what is actually systemic rot (gross and chronic under-resourcing and -staffing).

Kerr was almost certainly mentally ill, but he died of dehydration, not mental illness.

Accordingly, with each new soundbite promising further investigation and change or article on the oft-inadequate provision of primary care in prison, I wait in vain for an explanation as to why senior health administrators, those ultimately responsible who serve at the will of the administration, remain in place.

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 1:38 PM with the headline "John Carbone: Blame chronic underfunding and staffing."