More on the Parkland inmate saga

Following the other e-mails I received from the woman whose inmate/husband was taken to Parkland last Friday (see previous posts before the Keefe Commissary one), I received a third one this afternoon. She finally got a report on his condition a few hours before he was returned to jail, after a weekend wondering what the hell was going on.

Here's her latest e-mail, again censored to protect the innocent, semi-innocent and downright guilty:

"After calling Parkland over the weekend, who denied my husband was ever there (more about that later), I broke down and called June XXXXXX the care coordinator. It was a waste of time; again, I was told that since my husband hadn't signed a release of information, she couldn't tell me anything. If he were "critical", someone at Parkland would call me. This gave me visions of him on his deathbed with no priest.

I mentioned to her that someone who answered the main phone at the jail had suggested I go to Parkland in person and speak to the prison guard, and she got rather agitated. She wanted to know who had told me this, but I didn't have my notes with me. I have to write all this stuff down just to keep it straight. Nobody at the jail seems to agree on rules.

A couple of hours later I received a phone call from someone at the sheriff's office. I think her name was Vickie but I'm not sure. I had spoken to her a couple of months ago about XXXXX getting his medications, and I thought that's all she handled, but she also seems to know what goes when inmates go to Parkland.

Here's the real kicker: she told me all about XXXXX's stay in the hospital, which I appreciated - but didn't seem to know anything about a release of information.

Also, seems that the Parkland ER employees got chewed out for telling me that XXXXX was there when I called last Friday. He was even moved to another room for his safety, which I thought real funny. He's not charged with any violent crime, he's 5 foot 7, and he's pushing 60.

Monday night my husband called me from jail. Turns out the guards at Parkland are considerably nicer than most others. One went out and got him a McDonald's, and another brought in a DVD player and some movies to watch. They even all watched the Cowboys game together. And no guard bothered to chain him to the bed per DCJ rules. One commented "I think that IV and catheter's going to work better than any handcuffs".

So I think this is all at an end. I can only hope that your James doesn't get hauled around."