Another glaring example of inept and inadequate medical care provided to America's prisoners.

A pulled tooth led to the June death of a Solano State Prison inmate, according to a coroner's report released Monday on what the inmate's family and two Bay Area lawmakers say may be an extreme example of inept medical care inside California prisons. In a bizarre chain of events that is still being probed by the prison's internal affairs officers, the extraction of inmate Anthony Shumake's wisdom tooth caused swelling in his neck that made it difficult to breath and eventually led to heart failure, a doctor with the San Joaquin County coroner's office has concluded. Shumake, who was from Richmond, died June 28 at Doctor's Hospital in Manteca.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley said, "You should not die from a tooth extraction...It's either negligence or incompetence."

Last week a court-ordered study of the California prison system was released which found that "several prison doctors were incompetent and that medical care was shoddy in many places. " While Gov. Arnold did not create these problems, they are now continuing on his watch. He has promised reform. We'll be following his progress.