A Philly jail unit was left unsupervised overnight. In the morning, a man was found dead.
The family of Michael McKinnis, 61, want answers about how he died on a unit with no staff. “We both know Michael well enough to know he is going to scream for help," his brother said.
At 10:30 p.m. Friday, a supervisor touring B Unit at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, a city jail in Northeast Philadelphia, observed that no officer had been assigned to the unit. He logged his finding in prison records.
Still, the unit was left unstaffed until the next morning, when a lieutenant came through at 7 a.m. to serve breakfast — and found 61-year-old Michael McKinnis in cell 11 unresponsive. He was pronounced dead, and the cause of death has not yet been released.
McKinnis’ brother, Rick Saddler, and mother, Delois Saddler, want to know what happened in the those unsupervised eight hours, and whether McKinnis’ death could have been prevented if the jail unit was properly staffed.
“We both know Michael well enough to know he is going to scream for help, especially with the amount of pain he was in,” Rick Saddler said. McKinnis was medically fragile and in constant pain, a result of being hit by a car about eight years ago, he said.
A city spokesperson declined to provide additional information, citing an ongoing investigation. A spokesperson for the medical examiner said the cause of death was listed as pending.
McKinnis’ death came one week after 31-year-old Amanda Cahill died in a Philadelphia jail cell of suspected drug-related causes, days after being brought in from a police sweep in Kensington.
» READ MORE: Drug deaths and overdoses plague Philly jails, where many are denied drug treatment
The two cases bear some notable similarities: Both people were found dead on Saturday mornings by staff distributing morning meals or medications, which raises questions about the role of short-staffing in the deaths and whether emergency-call devices in the cells were working.
And both died just a few days after having been taken into custody on outstanding warrants — and were still on intake units, where medical screenings and other assessments are conducted, when they died.
» READ MORE: A 31-year-old woman arrested in a Kensington sweep died in jail days later
The jails have been operating at a little over half their necessary staffing levels — and on weekends, operations have been particularly skeletal, which advocates say is contributing to the dangers inside.
A federal judge this summer found the city in contempt for court for failing to remedy unconstitutional jail conditions and ordered the city to pay $25 million into a dedicated jail operations fund to be overseen by the court.
Five people have died in Philadelphia jails this year, putting them on track for the lowest death toll in at least four years.
But Claire Shubik-Richards, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said she has heard of people having heart attacks and seizures on unstaffed units.
“In every single one of our walk-throughs over the last three years, incarcerated people report medical emergencies that go unattended because there are no staff present,” she said.
» READ MORE: In contempt of court, Philly jails must pay $25 million and rapidly boost staffing
She said the staffing crisis, combined with the plans for more police sweeps in Kensington, is fueling that danger.
“Every weekend in the fall with an Eagles game is going to be short-staffed,” she said. “And given the mayor’s policies, there are going to be more medically fragile people coming into these facilities.”
McKinnis was arrested at home last week on three bench warrants, all related to 2018 arrests for driving while intoxicated in Philadelphia and Montgomery County. Court records show no recent criminal charges.
He grew up in St. Louis, came to Philadelphia for college, and worked in sales — an ideal fit for his outgoing personality and positive attitude, his family said. He owned a cell-phone shop in University City for a while. He had a 21-year-old son.
“He was a giant of a man,” said Rick Saddler, “very fit and healthy. But the last five years he had used a cane to walk, and was constantly falling down.”
Since the car crash, McKinnis suffered problems with his liver and back, and recently had surgery for a broken hip and femur. His family said they’ve been trying to find out whether he had received his medications at intake for his liver disease and for his pain — and what happened in the last days of his life. They had not known he was incarcerated until the chaplain called to notify them of his death.
“We still don’t have any answers,” Saddler said.
Defender Association of Philadelphia chief Keisha Hudson said in a statement that McKinnis’ death was a direct result of the city’s failure to act quickly to staff up the jails or reduce the number of people incarcerated.
“We’ve repeatedly called for collaboration and dialogue to develop solutions to end this crisis,” she said. “The time for city leaders to act is overdue. If we continue to operate with a lack of urgency, more people are going to die.”