Bmda: Something is rotten on the island of Bermuda

Now the Bermuda Royal Gazette is parroting the nonsense that nobody is to be held accountable for Steven Dill's death from asthma in his prison cell.

What a patent crock of gobar! After offering some pablum that

[n]o one in this day and age, should die of complications arising from asthma as Mr. Dill did,

the Royal Gazette proceeds to push the buck entirely off of the table.

Clearly, communications both between the responsible officers and with the duty nurse were dreadful. Nonetheless, based on the evidence presented at the inquest into Mr. Dill’s death, it would have been difficult to pinpoint one action or one person who was directly responsible for the Prison Farm inmate’s passing.

Instead, it would appear that Mr. Dill’s death was a result of a breakdown in the prison system itself, and the system would end up on trial in the event of a prosecution.

What kind of breakdown in the system was it if a man was calling for medical help for SEVEN hours and did not receive it? Did the prison have no lights and was Mr. Dill in a dungeon that no one could find him? Did nobody except the prisoners at the Prison Farm hear Steven Dill's cries for help? Are the guards deaf? Who was on duty during those SEVEN hours, and where were they? Who was in charge of the guards during that period of time? Where was the warden of the prison? What are prison guards in Bermuda being paid to do? Play whe-whe?

Every last man jack who worked that day should wind up on trial with the time-sheets/punch clocks and prisoners as witnesses against them. It is arrant nonsense for the editorial page of Bermuda's premier paper to have such a laissez-faire attitude about the loss of a man's life. Perhaps the editor can be so dismissive because Steven Dill was no more than a prisoner, and Steven Dill may not have been related to him. It is better that the entire system end up on trial than that one man lose his life because of such callous indifference. Based on this editorial, it is clear that the malaise exists not only in the prison system, but might well permeate all of Bermudan society itself.