INSIDE ONE JAIL’S HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS AND ‘CULTURE OF IMPUNITY’
Part 3 of “Dying on the Sheriff’s Watch”
March 26, 2020
WBUR
By Christine Willmsen and Beth Healy
Broken Back, Broken Nose And 15 Stitches
In July of 2012, Andrew Nascarella lay in a pool of his own blood at Essex’s Middleton House of Correction, after a guard punched him in the face.
Nascarella, a 28-year-old construction worker with a history of mental illness and serving time for larceny, was being held in the jail’s segregation unit.
At one point, he refused an order to return to his cell, because he wanted to see a supervisor. Corrections officer Travis Mustone walked across the unit to confront Nascarella. Suddenly, Mustone grabbed the handcuffed inmate from behind and hurled him to the ground, according to court records and surveillance video provided to WBUR by Nascarella’s lawyer.
“This incident resulted from a pattern and a culture of violence at the facility,” White said, and “a culture of impunity that resulted from failures in supervision and investigation.”