Jailhouse video shows deputies watching as inmate dies

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Last year, the county awarded Holland’s family $5 million for his death, which a medical examiner determined was caused by a pulmonary embolism.

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The Tribune reported that authorities have since stopped using the restraint chair, but Sheriff Ian Parkinson would not say whether anyone had been disciplined.

Holland, 36, had schizophrenia since his early 20s and was incarcerated on and off over the years, usually for minor offences. He was taken into custody in 2015 on charges of battery, resisting an officer and probation violations. He was strapped into the chair after repeatedly hitting himself.

The video posted on The Tribune’s website shows sheriff’s deputies periodically entering his cell to rotate his arms and legs and offer him food and water. Strapped to the chair, he is unable to use a nearby toilet.

County policy requires rotating a restrained inmate’s extremities every 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours to prevent blood clots that can lead to a fatal embolism.

The newspaper reported that Holland was released from the chair and moved to another cell so human waste that collected under his chair, and is visible in the video, could be cleaned up.

Video of him in the other cell shows him lying on a tile floor with just a blanket.

At one point, he stands up briefly, appears to be stricken by tremors and lies down again, covering himself with the blanket. Soon after, he appears to have trouble breathing, then loses consciousness.

Several deputies and paramedics enter the cell and attempt to revive him, while one deputy stands smiling and talking to another.

“We had hope that his life would improve, but on January 22nd of this year, our son Andrew died a brutal and tortured death at the hands of the custodial staff at San Luis Obispo County jail,” Holland’s mother, Sharon, told reporters last July.

The family, which has said it will use the settlement money to establish a non-profit to advocate for the rights of mentally ill people in the criminal justice system, declined to comment further this week.

The Associated Press