Eaten Alive: Inhumane Jail Conditions Are Killing Our Nation’s Most Vulnerable People
By Sonora Bostian-Posner
We’ve written so many stories about inhumane prison conditions and abuse in prisons that I’d think it wouldn’t be so shocking (though no less enraging). Yet sadly, our nation’s prisons shock me again and again with how little they regard the people in their care.
The latest story curdled my stomach: LaShawn Thompson, a 35-year-old who was being held in Fulton County Jail after being arrested for misdemeanor simple battery, was found dead in his jail cell after being eaten alive by bed bugs and other insects. The coroner said that Thompson’s body was covered in bed bugs, and Thompson’s family’s lawyer, Michael D. Harper, described the conditions of Thompson’s cell as unfit for a “diseased animal.”
The U.S. has proved over and over again, though, that the lives and well-being of incarcerated individuals are worth less to us than diseased animals. Thompson’s death was enabled not just by bed bugs or deplorable sanitation, but by a nation who feels that anyone who is in jail or in prison doesn’t deserve to be treated humanely — if they die, they die.
It’s disgusting, but it’s the truth. How can it not be when we see constant reminders of the horrible conditions of our nation’s prisons? The food is disgusting. Health care, including dental care, is virtually non-existent. Heating and air-conditioning aren’t always provided, killing countless people during extreme temperatures. When storms come through, incarcerated people are left behind, even when the rest of the town is evacuated.
The infestation that killed LaShawn Thompson is a visceral reminder of the neglect that is rampant in our prison system, but it’s hardly an outlier. Until we demand better prison conditions, until we care about what happens to people when they’re put behind bars, more deaths will continue — and they will be on our hands.
One way to improve prison conditions is to establish independent prison oversight. Please contact your lawmakers today and ask them to support independent prison oversight in your state.
Sonora Bostian-Posner is FAMM’s Director of Digital Communications.
