The Milwaukee County jail, under the responsibility of “notorious” Donald Trump supporter, Sheriff David Clarke, is responsible—well … kind of, sort of—for the death of a man in April by “profound dehydration.” Clarke addressed the delegates of the Republican National Convention earlier this summer and has been a vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement for the last couple of years. Part of his criticism is that there is no “crisis” of law enforcement shootings of African Americans. We’re not sure of his views on the deaths of African Americans (or others) in jail custody.
Thirty-eight-year-old Terrill Thomas had been awaiting a psychiatric examination died from lack of water and other factors related to bipolar disorder. His death was ruled a homicide last week; the ruling came four months after water in his jail cell had been turned off. While no legal entity has yet declared the jail or Sheriff Clarke personally, criminally responsible, the determination of homicide means Thomas’s death was “at the hands of another” … which just happened to be in Sheriff Clarke’s jail:
[Thomas] was found unresponsive in his cell on April 24, nine days after being arrested for shooting a man in the chest and later firing two shots in the Potawatomi casino.
His family said he was in the throes of a mental breakdown when he was arrested. At the time of his death, he was awaiting a court-ordered psychiatric examination.
According to inmates at the jail, they heard Thomas begging for water in the days leading up to his death. The water in Thomas’s cell had been cut off for six days. Guards told the inmates it was because of Thomas’s “erratic behavior”—he had been flooding a previous cell that he occupied.
Thomas is not the first person to die under Sheriff Clarke’s watch:
On Aug. 28, a 38-year-old female inmate was found dead in the County Jail. Details of her death have not yet been made public.
A 2014 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found 10 people died in custody of the Sheriff's Office during a four-year period. One woman complained of chest pains but didn't get proper medical care, one man's water had been shut off and one man committed suicide after not receiving his prescribed anti-depressants. None of those deaths resulted in charges against personnel; only two resulted in officers being disciplined.
Sheriff Clarke’s office issued a statement on Thomas’s death saying that comments will be withheld “until all outside reviews and investigations were completed,” so perhaps he’ll tell us then.
