Salt Lake County Inmate Dies from Starvation

Salt Lake City, Utah – An inmate at the Salt Lake County jail died in his cell. The family of Carlos Umana wants to know why their son died of starvation and dehydration. Officials at the jail refused to issue any explanation, except that “we tried to get him to eat.”

Umana was charged with attempted murder. Allegedly, he stabbed his mother’s boyfriend last year. When Umana was booked into the County facility, he weighed 180 pounds. At his death he weighed an alarming 77 pounds.

The family is begging for answers as to how a young man could drop a considerable amount of weight in three months without authorities stepping in. There was no “suicide watch” on Umana, and no indication that he was in need of medical attention. Umana got lost in the numbers as he slowly starved himself to death.

Family members state that Umana was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder when he was a teenager. He stopped taking medication on his own last year. An unidentified family member states that Umana began hearing “voices” and became paranoid prior to the stabbing incident. Umana was particularly fearful that his food was being poisoned.

Family members state that they tried to bring his medication to the jail. The coroner’s report stated that there was no medication in the body.

The question of how and why falls not only on the jail system, but the family themselves. It is not known how many times Umana was visited while serving his sentence. If family members tried to get medication to Umana, couldn’t they see the drastic weight loss and demand that jail authorities look into the situation?

Umana was lost in the system, by-passed by the growing numbers that fill the County Jail every year. The fact that he was psychologically impaired, without medical treatment, is another indication that Umana was a lost soul in a corridor of orange jump-suits.

Whether there will be an official investigation in the death of Umana, has not yet been decided.

Sources:

KUTV News

The Salt Lake Tribune