ALBANY, N.Y., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A serial killer who died in the New York prison where he was serving a 250-year sentence may have been a victim of medical neglect, a report says.
The state Commission of Correction, in a December report, said there was evidence Arthur Shawcross received "grossly negligent, incompetent and inadequate medical evaluation and treatment," the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported Tuesday. The newspaper obtained the report through a Freedom of Information request.
Shawcross, 63, was an inmate at the Sullivan Correctional Facility when he died in November 2008. He was sentenced to 250 years to life for killing 11 women in the Rochester area between 1988 and 1990.
Erik Kriss, a spokesman for Correctional Services, said an investigation had found specific problems at Sullivan and they had been corrected.
While much of the detail on Sullivan's treatment was eliminated from the report given the newspaper, the report did say a nurse refused to provide a wheelchair for Sullivan when he said his leg hurt so much he could not walk to the clinic for medication. The day he died, he was transferred to the Albany Medical Center by prison van instead of ambulance, a transfer delayed because the van came from another prison.
