JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — "He's still my father and I will always be Daddy's little girl," Kelli Cisco says, as she fights a mix of anger and tears.
Cisco says she has documents to prove FDOC and its healthcare provider for the prison system, Centurion, did not treat her father in time to stop his cancer from becoming terminal. Now, she says, he doesn't have long.
State Senator Jennifer Bradley, who chairs the Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice in Tallahassee says, "There was delay after delay...a slow pace and then no treatment."
Cisco's father, Raymond Gregg, is a Vietnam veteran with an honorable discharge. But his daughter says he was haunted by PTSD.
Then in 1988 Gregg was sent to prison for life for murdering the mother of his estranged wife in South Florida. According to the arrest report, the victim was 77 years old. There was "a physical altercation" and Gregg pushed the victim. She fell "striking her head," he dragged her body to her bedroom and called 911, saying she died of "natural causes."
First Coast News reached out to the family of the victim and was told the memories were too difficult to talk about.
Cisco says she's not arguing with her father's conviction, but says at the time "he was blackout drunk."
That was 26 years ago. And from prison for all these years now, Cisco and her dad talk by phone, and he ends every conversation with the same pet phrase, "Snuggems and huggems." Gregg tells his daughter on a recent video call, "I love you, punkin. God bless you."
Sweet words, but now Cisco is just angry. "I'm so mad," she says. "Why? That's my number one question. Why?"
Cisco says now her father is going to die and she blames the prison system. "Have you ever heard of Tylenol being the treatment for a tumor eating his brain?" she says.
Doctors' reports show Gregg has eccrine gland carcinoma, a rare cancer of the sweat glands.
And the hope of curing it now is gone.
"They succeeded in killing my father," Cisco says.
So what happened?
First Coast News talked with Raymond Gregg at Union County Correctional Institution in 2023 at a Veterans Day program. Gregg is chaplain for the VVA Chapter 1080, a Vietnam Veterans of America group of incarcerated veterans. The group has been recognized multiple times for raising thousands of dollars for local schools and needy veterans through walk-a-thons around their prison yards.
Gregg said then he was in pain. "I have an excruciating headache," he said.
And he took off his bandage to point to the lump over his ear. "It started out as a little mark over my ear," he said. But seven years had gone by and he felt it was getting worse. He took off gauze from his ear to show a whitish-yellow discharge.
Gregg says he doesn't blame Vietnam. He did commit a murder, he says.
However, he says, "I don't want to die."
"I have proof of everything. But I've learned proof gets me nowhere," Cisco says, as she points to her father's medical records she's obtained.
Cisco said that his medical records from March of last year note a "lump along the side of ear...no imagery."
Then Cisco says she got a doctor's call saying her dad needed surgery or he'd only have a short time to live. "Six to nine months," she said.
But not until August last year -- 2023--did Centurion say his case was upgraded from "routine to urgent by request of a doctor."
Fast forward to April 2024 and a note from the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UF Health. The doctor says that numerous attempts had been made to admit Gregg into the hospital to see if his "complex skull base malignancy" could be operated on." But the doctor goes on to say, "These efforts have been refused by the Department of Corrections."
Then Cisco gets a call from another doctor, a radiation oncologist. Cisco tells about the call in tears. "He said, you know, this surgery should have been done months ago ... Now the tumor has progressed into his brain and it's inoperable and your father is considered terminal."
First Coast News has spoken with several doctors from Gregg's case to confirm his cancer should have been handled much earlier to have any chance of survival. All those doctors have declined to talk on TV.
The situation with Gregg has infuriated veterans, who volunteer at UCI to work with the VVA Chapter 1080 incarcerated veterans.
One is Robert Adelhelm, a retired United States Marine Colonel, who's known Gregg at UCI for years.
He said he's disgusted with what he saw at the prison. "I've seen the situation where inmates are using toilet paper and scotch tape."
Gregg told his daughter in April 2024 he asked for proper wound care but had to rig up his own bandages.
"These are veterans who were honorably discharged, fought for our country, and we're making them use scotch tape and toilet paper on their wounds," he said.
Adelhelm said, "We treat dogs better."
First Coast News asked for response from State Sen. Jennifer Bradley, who chairs the Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice in Tallahassee. "I'm sorry the system failed him. And I can promise his family that we will investigate and see who dropped the ball and there must be accountability," she said.
Bradley said changes, including staffing and access to medical care, are in the works for FDOC. Centurion, the healthcare provider for the state prison system, operates under a more than $350 million contract.
First Coast News reached out to Centurion and did not get a reply as of Aug. 29, 2024. We also emailed Jake Felder in the Office of Communications with FDOC.
Here's the list of questions First Coast News reporter Jeannie Blaylock asked in the email:
- Is the conclusion that the level of care (in Gregg's case) was indeed adequate? How does the DOC define that?
- What is the policy for treating an inmate with cancer? Is there a budget allowed for treatment from the Centurion contract?
- What is your response to Mr. Gregg’s family, who’s upset because they believe he wouldn’t be terminal if Centurion and DOC had treated him earlier?
- Can we have a copy of the investigation?
Felder replied:
"FDC is prohibited from addressing your specific concerns as doing so would violate privacy laws and protected health information.
At the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC), we place utmost importance on the healthcare and safety of our inmate population. We hold a fundamental responsibility to providing inmates with a constitutional standard of care when they are admitted to the Department’s institutions in accordance with Florida law.
Upon intake, each individual undergoes a comprehensive health examination, and we continuously monitor and evaluate inmates for their medical, dental, and mental health needs throughout their incarceration."
Cisco does not have an attorney working on her father's case. However, other families are suing. Attorney James Slater said he has several cases right now in federal court in Jacksonville, including one which centers around defendant and inmate Elmer Williams. The suit is filed against Centurion and several employees of the FDOC.
Slater said Williams was so sick from prostate cancer he couldn't walk and he developed sores on his buttocks and lower legs.
Slater says this is an example of the improper care given to Williams:
"He had to defecate from time to time in the shower and use gloves to push it down the drain because he wasn't given the accommodations he needed."
Slater is not working directly with Gregg's case but says he sees "case after case" of "delay and delay" in treatment in the Florida prison system.
Cisco says she knows it's too late to save her dad, but she wants attention on the issue.
And so does her father.
Gregg says, "Sure, I'm in prison. I did something wrong. But I'm still a human being and I just don't want the rest of these guys to go through this kind of crap. That's all there is to it."