According to a press release from the Utah Department of Corrections, the striking inmates provided a list of demands that included a request for gang leaders to be relocated from the maximum security unit they’re now housed in.
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Corrections officials say the Utah State Prison hunger strike is all but ended, with only two inmates left on its sixth day.
Prison spokeswoman Brooke Adams said that by lunch on Wednesday, 40 of the 42 inmates had accepted meals. Another supervising nurse was demoted, as was the prison’s clinical services director, who will serve as just a doctor at the prison.
Meanwhile, the dialysis operation at the prison’s on-site clinic is being reviewed by the Utah Department of Health, and the department’s Law Enforcement Bureau has also launched an internal investigation.
Prison officials say a hunger strike at Utah State Prison that began seven days ago is completely over.
The Utah Department of Corrections is not releasing the names of the disciplined employees. These include provision of weekly summary sheets of inmate dialysis treatment; a procedure for monitoring and tracking inmates who refuse or stop scheduled dialysis treatment; sharing of treatment protocols and notes/orders between the Department and South Valley Dialysis; holding quality assurance protocol reviews every six months; and mandatory joint training of Department and South Valley Dialysis staff who work in the Olympus Facility (where the dialysis clinic is located).
The University of Utah’s health care system has said two of its dialysis technicians had switched shifts that weekend and one of them forgot about the schedule change and the appointments.
The prison has not released details about what actions its own employees took after the missed appointments, including if they tried to contact anyone at South Valley Dialysis.
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Estrada’s family sued the Department of Corrections in June for negligence that resulted in Estrada’s death.
