Police officer caught on video laughing with colleagues as prisoner dies

WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: A police officer inside a jail has been caught on camera appearing to joke with other deputies as a mentally ill prisoner dies on the floor just metres from him.

CCTV footage, obtained by The Tribune, shows the moment the officer jokes with others as schizophrenic prisoner Andrew Holland lies motionless in his cell at San Luis Obispo County Jail in California, US, while other staff frantically try and save his life.

Mr Holland can be seen collapsing to the ground on January 22 last year after forming a blood clot in his lungs while officers gaze on through his cell's glass door as he loses consciousness.

Before the incident in the video, Mr Holland had been allegedly restrained in a chair for 46 hours straight, sitting naked in his own faeces and urine.

Mr Holland's family has since been paid $6.5 million after it was found that sitting in the same position for a lengthy period of time was likely to have caused his fatal blood clot.

County Administrative Officer Wade Horton said the new video, just released, was "extremely painful to watch".

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"Although we can't bring Andrew back, our county has made and continues to make changes in response to this terrible event," he told The Tribune.

Use of the restraining chair has since been prohibited at the jail.

It is unknown if the officers in the CCTV have been disciplined over the new footage.