ATLANTA– According to a complaint, the Georgia sun scorched the concrete slab beneath Juan Ramirez Bibiano’s body when nurses found him vomiting in a pool of his own feces.
Officers left Ramirez in an outdoor cell at Telfair State Prison for five hours on July 20, 2023, without water, shade or ice, as the afternoon temperature reached 96 degrees, according to a lawsuit filed by his family. That evening, the complaint says, Ramirez died of heart and lung failure caused by heat exposure. He was 27.
Ramirez’s family, including his mother, Norma Bibiano, announced a lawsuit Thursday against the Georgia Department of Corrections, alleging that officers’ negligence in the performance of their duties caused his death. The guard ordered officers to check on inmates, bring them water and ice and limit their time outside, the complaint said.
The Department of Corrections reported that Ramirez died of natural causes, Jeff Filipovits, one of Norma Bibiano’s attorneys, said at a news conference in Decatur, an Atlanta suburb.
Georgia’s prisons are under federal oversight. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights researchthat is still ongoing, to state prisons over concerns about violence, understaffing and sexual abuse.
Outside Georgia, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has received complaints of widespread dysfunction. The Associated Press discovered widespread sexual abuse, criminal misconduct by staff, staff shortages, inmate escapes, COVID outbreaks, and crumbling infrastructure in prisons across the country.
The findings led U.S. Senator John Ossoff of Georgia to introduce bipartisan legislation in 2022 that would overhaul the agency’s oversight and improve transparency. The bill was unanimously passed in the Senate on July 10.
During a daily meeting at 8 a.m. on the day of Ramirez’s death, Telfair Prison Warden Andrew McFarlane ordered department heads to ensure inmates got enough fluids, bring them ice and not leave them out in the heat for too long, the lawsuit says.
A jail official took Ramirez to an outside cell around 10 a.m. after his meeting with a mental health provider, the complaint said, when the temperature had risen to 190 degrees.
At about 3 p.m., five nurses on the scene rushed into the yard after being alerted by security personnel, the complaint said, and the nurses found him lying naked on the concrete, next to his vomit and feces, the complaint said.
Ramirez’s breathing was labored and his heartbeat was irregular, the complaint said. A nurse said Ramirez was blue and “hot to the touch,” the complaint said. Nurses pressed bottles of cold water on his groin and under his arms.
Nurses then placed an automated external defibrillator on Ramirez’s chest, but it did not deliver a shock. After some time, a doctor arrived to help nurses administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the complaint said. He attempted to place tubes into Ramirez, who was still having trouble breathing, reportedly because of yellow stomach bile, the complaint said.
His body temperature was later measured at 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 degrees Celsius), the complaint said.
At approximately 3:35 p.m., Emergency Medical Services arrived and took Ramirez to a local hospital. He died at 8:25 p.m. of cardiac arrest caused by heat exposure, the complaint said.
“The number of deaths in custody is appalling and the absolute lawlessness in prisons is a humanitarian crisis,” Filipovits said at the Georgia prisons press conference. “I do not use these words lightly.”
The number of murders in Georgia prisons is increasing, and the number is higher than in other states, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. reportedBut the Journal-Constitution also reported that the Department of Corrections immediately stopped reporting the causes of inmate deaths beginning in March
The attorneys said they have minimal information about the events leading up to Ramirez’s death. For example, they are not sure whether officers moved Ramirez to an outside cell for routine or punitive purposes. They said they still do not know which officers were directly responsible for Ramirez’s care.
“A piece of my heart is gone,” Norma Bibiano said in Spanish at the news conference. Ramirez’s brother was seated next to her. Ramirez also left behind a son, and he was a father figure to his partner’s son, the family said.
Bibiano remembered her son as loving, kind and intelligent. She said she always hoped her son would come home, and she misses hearing him say, “I love you, Mommy” on the phone.
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Charlotte Kramon is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues. Follow Kramon on the X social platform: @charlottekramon
