A Los Angeles jury has awarded the family of a deceased prison inmate $1.7 million. His survivors had sued claiming that the man’s cancer went untreated while he was in custody.
Five years ago, Francisco Castaneda spent four months in a Kern County state prison for methamphetamine possession. That prison turned him over to federal immigration authorities who detained the Salvadoran in a San Diego facility. In both places, he complained about growths and lesions on his penis which turned out to be a malignant cancer that he had long befgore being custody. Doctors testified the cancer was to far advanced and untreatable by the time he began complaining about symptoms.
Castaneda’s family maintains that the state and federal institutions ignored his symptoms until he needed an amputation. Two years ago – after he’d testified to a U.S. House committee – the 36-year-old man died.
His family alleged negligence and sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Lawyers for that agency said Castaneda’s cancer was untreatable, but a jury disagreed. It awarded his 17-year-old daughter $1.5 million, plus medical expenses. Attorneys for the state have not indicated whether they’ll appeal the jury award. The family’s lawsuit against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is scheduled to go to court next year.
Only in America can you come here illegally, be a drug pusher of the worst sort and get sympathy and make almost 2 million bucks off the taxpayers because you had cancer years before your arrest and somehow the system is held responsible. Can you believe a jury would be so stupid? I can, if they come from Los Angeles – its a pro-illegal alien haven and sanctuary city and this case should never have been tried there, better to hold it in Butte County where juries are not such dumb-asses.
The criminal justice system in California is broken. There is no denying that. Castandeda should have never even gone to jail in the first place. He was convicted of possession of a controlled substance, not of selling it. He was NOT a drug pusher but a drug taker. They should have sent him back to El Salvador instead of keeping him here. The medical facilities in prison are terrible. It does not surprise me they did nothing to help treat him in prison.
As long as people go to prison for possession of a controlled substance, including pot, the budget crisis will only get worse. The Three Strikes Law is super expensive for California, and is the reason so many people are in prison for the most stupid reasons like possession of marijuana. I went to a trial just today where a guy only had one joint on him and had been in jail five months while awaiting trial. That is rediculous. There was so much money spent just keeping him in jail.
I think of all the child molestors and rapists that get out early to make room for non-violent offenders like these people who are convicted of drug possession, and it really pisses me off. Now that is the real travesty.
The racist criminal justice system in California needs to be fixed. And until it is, there will be no money for schools or social programs because prison happy prosecutors just want to look good in the eyes of the public. They could care less about the people they send to prison, or about the resources they are wasting by doing so.
A conviction for intent to distribute requires a fairly large amount of meth on hand far beyond that for personal use. It also is typically linked to scales and packaging items to show intent. Castenada was a pusher.