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The state of Washington has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of a prisoner who died of breast cancer.
The family of Kenny Williams, who died on June 12, 2019, after breast cancer spread to his bones, will receive $3.75 million. The family alleged that he repeatedly asked officials for help with his health but was ignored.
"I am dying," Williams wrote in one letter to corrections officials. "What is holding up the treatment that will save my life?"
The family's lawyer, Ed Budge said the state Department of Corrections failed.
"It has repeatedly failed," he said. "It has paid millions to settle cases that could have been avoided with competent and decent care, and it should take this case as an opportunity to look deep within itself and consider what it needs to do to avoid further travesties like this."
Budge wasn't the only one to knock the state's Department of Corrections.
"For me, one of the most frustrating parts of this case was DOC's intransigence and its refusal to take action earlier on," the family's other lawyer, Hank Balson, said in a statement. "Instead, it chose to put the family through 10 months of litigation."
The money will be distributed to Dee Williams, his widow, and their four children, according to The Seattle Times.
Williams was a local musician who pleaded guilty in 2016 to aggravated assault after shooting at a man while intoxicated. The cancer was discovered by a Monroe Correctional Complex nurse in 2018, although no follow-up examination was ever scheduled.
"I need to see a provider," Williams wrote to officials. "I have signed up 5 times, wrote one kite, went to sick call where the nurse felt the lump in my breast and told me that I would surely see a provider but still nothing on the call-outs. This has been going on for 6 months now and I feel that I have been very patient, could you please help me. Thank you."
Even after complaining about intense pain, the DOC waited for six months before admitting Williams to an oncologist. Despite the admission, he reportedly never received the chemotherapy that the doctor urged him to receive.
A report released by the Washington Office of the Corrections Ombuds in November of 2019 determined that Williams could have survived his cancer if corrections officials were quicker to act.
"With appropriate care, Mr. Williams' life would have been prolonged for some years, and it is very likely that he might have returned to the life expectancy he would have had if the cancer had never occurred," the report said.
Newsweek reached out to the Office of the Corrections Ombuds.
Update 2/24/22, 9:59 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
