And whatever the circumstances, they say, patients' families are entitled to answers. Yet the normal investigative process falls apart at each step, The Courant found. Hospital workers cover up or obscure the circumstances of a death. Autopsies are not automatically performed. Police are not routinely summoned.
Investigators often defer to the explanations offered by the institutions involved.
Thus, few are ever punished. Prosecutors rarely pursue arrests in restraint deaths and, when they do, they typically accept plea bargains to minor charges. Hers was a rare case in which criminal charges were filed. He tossed the case out. The law is not disability-friendly.