Two men are suing the city, the prisons department, a healthcare contractor and others in federal court alleging that their father was denied basic medical care prior to his death nearly a year ago inside a Philadelphia jail cell.
Louis Jung Jr., a 50-year-old from South Philadelphia who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a youth, did not receive any insulin or glucose checks in the final six days of his life, attorneys for the family wrote in a complaint filed Wednesday.
He died of diabetic ketoacidosis in November 2023, less than two weeks after being re-admitted to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility with a dangerously high blood-sugar level, according to the lawsuit.
“We feel like the prison murdered him,” his 23-year-old son, Jacob Jung, told Metro. “He’s never going to get the chance to see anything me or my two brothers accomplish in life. He’ll never see my daughter grow up or be a grandfather for my daughter.”
Throughout his incarceration, the Philadelphia Department of Prisons did not provide a plan to treat Jung’s diabetes or adhere to nationally recognized guidelines, the legal team argued in the complaint.
Jung was arrested in December 2021 and charged with robbery. Four days later, prison staff took him to Nazareth Hospital due to diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemia, and he was repeatedly hospitalized for diabetes-related conditions while behind bars, the lawsuit says.
He was committed to Norristown State Hospital in March 2023 and spent seven months there as mental health evaluations were being conducted to determine if he was competent to stand trial.
Ahead of a court hearing, Jung returned Oct. 28, 2023, to CFCF, one of several city jails clustered along State Road in Northeast Philadelphia. At intake, a nurse measured his glucose level at 542, though he was not taken to the infirmary or an outside medical center, the family’s attorneys said.
Instead, Jung received sporadic insulin and glucose checks, but even those stopped Nov. 1, the lawsuit alleges. He died Nov. 6.
Ava Schwemler, communications director for the city’s Law Department, said the administration is reviewing the complaint and declined to comment. A representative from YesCare, a firm that contracts to provide medical services inside the jails, said Wednesday they had not yet been served and do not comment on pending litigation.
Also named in the complaint are former Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney, YesCare medical director Lalitha Trivikram, nurse practitioner Maureen Gay and unnamed correctional officers.
“We want justice for him, and we want the people that were on duty – the prison – ought to be held accountable,” Jacob Jung said.
Jacob was one of Jung’s three sons, all of whom are adults. He and his brother, James, are administering his estate and filed the lawsuit in conjunction with the Abolitionist Law Center. The third son, Louis III, has serious physical disabilities.
Their mother, Evelyn Tyson, divorced Jung about 15 years ago, but the two remained close friends.
“The reality is we’re going to grieve for this forever,” Tyson, 48, who lives in Delaware, said. “I can’t rely on picking the phone up and talking to him when I’m having a bad day.”
Jung was one of 14 inmates who died in Philadelphia Department of Prisons custody in 2023, and at least 5 fatalities have been reported this year, according to an ALC-maintained register.
Nia Holston, an ALC attorney working on the case, said Jung’s death is “a tangible manifestation of a system-wide problem.”
In August, a federal judge ordered Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration to set aside $25 million to bring the jail system into compliance with the terms of a settlement stemming from a class-action lawsuit brought by inmates over prison conditions.
Among the mandates included in that order is a requirement that the city fund additional staff liaisons to work with security personnel and healthcare providers; increase YesCare’s budget; and collect information about members of the incarcerated population with significant medical needs.
A court monitor, who has been tracking PDP’s compliance with the settlement, wrote in an Oct. 1 report that inmates “have, at times, been denied access to routine and complex healthcare services.”
“When you have system-wide problems that go unaddressed, this is the tragic outcome of that,” Holston told Metro.
Tyson was more blunt: “I think the city of Philadelphia needs to get their s— together.”
