There has been a lot of "back-and-forth" arguing going on regarding a story I did last week involving a Sedgwick County Jail inmate who was beaten inside the detention facility earlier this month, so I wanted to address some of the accusations about fact and non-fact.

If you haven't seen the story, you can view it here:  http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/15895352.html

I knew this story would be a touchy one.  It is one of those topics where you're going to upset one half or the other.  But the bottom line is, a man was severely injured because of the altercation and I felt it was our responsibility to take an objective look at what happened.

First of all, I wanted to respond directly to a commenter named Bob.  Here is his post:

 "How is it that most of the people on here, so easily want to hang the deputy out to dry without knowing all the facts? Is it that most of the people that post on here were once inmates at the facility themselves? To those individuals there is nothing that any of the deputies could have done that would be correct. For the others you need to let all the facts come out cause I can tell you this much (Kake on your side) has the facts all screwed up like they always do when it comes to reporting what is going on in the Detention facility. First big flaw in their reporting is that the inmate in question is a coma from the beat down. Wrong!!! he was medically placed into a coma do to his mental state. They where afraid that he would hurt himself or staff more while at the hospital. Second big flaw that the report is that they did not tell you is that when the family did show up at the hospital there was not the 3 that they showed on TV. There was close to 15 people all trying to get in to see him."

While I can't respond to Bob's question regarding other posters intentions, I will respond to his accusations regarding the factual basis of the story.  Numerous attempts were made to find out the exact condition of the inmate.  My phone messages to hospital staff have all gone unanswered.  Meanwhile, the sheriff's department says they won't comment about any medical history or condition because of HIPPA privacy concerns.  Therefore, the only report of a condition on the victim I can get is from his family who, admittedly, was not being allowed any visitation at the time the story went to air.  They have since been allowed 1-hour, daily visits with one person at a time.

There were many things the family claimed that I did not include in the story.  Some of it was due to time constraints and some of it was due to the inability to back up what they claimed.  However, the only report of a condition on the victim came from the family.  I had no choice but to rely on what they said.  I personally heard the ambulance chatter on the scanners when he was transported to the hospital. 

Again, repeated calls to hospital staff have not been returned and the sheriff's department won't comment on anything medical regarding the victim because of HIPPA privacy concerns.  This includes questions about the victim being in a coma.  A number of posters have mentioned that Mr. Richard was placed in a medically-induced coma due to his mental instability.  Those questions were asked and not answered.

As far as the visitation goes, the department's response to not allowing the family to visit the man was clearly stated.  Col. Hinshaw explained, "Just because he's in the hospital doesn't mean his privileges are any different than anybody else's.  We have to maintain a controlled environment."  And, personally, I agree with him.

We all know that a detention facility is an extremely volatile environment.  In fact, Col. Hinshaw reported to me that there were 217 use-of-force write-ups at the Sedgwick County Jail last year.  That's 4-5 altercations per week!  Obviously, we don't do stories on all of them.  On the other hand, this specific incident led to the very serious injury of the inmate and the suspension of the deputy involved.  The case was also given to the district attorney for possible charges.  With all of those factors, this was clearly not your run-of-the-mill jail fight.

In closing, I want to pass along my utmost respect to all law enforcement officers, including the very brave people who work inside detention facilities.  It's a job that few are cut out for and many find easy to criticize.  Just like every beat cop on the street, their lives are at risk every single day.  Thank you for doing a job that I, personally, would never want to do.