After of Vermont inmates who died of cancer after serving time in the state鈥檚 prison system, VPR鈥檚 Taylor Dobbs spoke with Vermont Edition about those cases and the limited transparency of health care provided to Vermont's inmate population.
Explore VPR's Death Behind Bars Series
His sisters remember him as a "gentle giant." While in prison, he began complaining of a pain in his leg. The pain was caused by cancer, but staff didn't provide treatment until it became so advanced that his femur broke under his weight.
On October 15, Vermont inmate Roger Brown died of metastatic cancer at the prison infirmary in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. He wrote in his diary that prison medical staff provided him with ibuprofen, Tylenol and gel shoe inserts to manage his pain and never told him about the cancer that was causing it. He documented his last three months in detail, giving
