An advocacy group formed “to defend the rights of poor and working people” gathered early Thursday night in front of Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center, demanding answers from the facility about five individuals who died under its custody at the city’s correctional complex in the past three years.
“We want to know how these folks died and how can we prevent it,” Sharon Black, a spokesperson for the Peoples Power Assembly said. “People behind these walls are our friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, residents of the city, and we believe they deserve decent treatment.”
The deaths honored at the rally were those of Bernice Mitchell, Deniro Bellamy, David Ott, Andre “Shawn” Fennell and Levi Davis Jr.
Although the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said it investigated the deaths and found no foul play, assembly members rallied to show dissatisfaction with the conclusions, calling the incidents a “human rights issue.”
Lime-green signage, hovering over the corner of the Fallsway and Madison Street, said “The community needs answers!” and “No more deaths at Baltimore jails.”
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services declined to comment about the protest.
Not everyone at the demonstration was part of the organization.
“I just came to find people to relate to,” Marilyn Barnes said. Her son, Marlyn Barnes, hanged himself in April at Harford County Detention Center, the Sheriff’s Office said. Marilyn Barnes has been seeking more information regarding her son’s death but said she has “not heard anything” since April from the Sheriff’s Office or the medical examiner.
“No one wants to talk to you,” Barnes said. “That’s the biggest problem.”
These deaths come after the state’s agreement in 2015 to overhaul health care services and improve the Baltimore jail system through efforts such as imposing independent monitors to inspect facilities and report to a federal judge.
The demonstration grew out of a growing frustration over what happened to the five individuals who died after being held in the custody of the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, including three in six months in 2018.
In 2016, 53-year-old Bernice Mitchell was taken to Central BookingDec. 3 and found dead in her cell less than three weeks later. According to a woman processed at the same time, Mitchell appeared heavily intoxicated and was inducing white powder for hours before an officer noticed her unresponsiveness and called for a medic. The medical examiner said Mitchell suffered from morphine and fentanyl intoxication and ruled her death an accident.
Last June, Deniro Bellamy, 31, was held at the facility after turning himself in for missing a court date after allegedly driving without a license in early May. When Bellamy was found unresponsive, he was taken to the emergency room at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner found morphine and fentanyl in his system but ruled his cause of death as “undetermined,” a common ruling in Maryland for drug overdoses.
In November, David Ott, 31, who had been charged with trespassing Oct. 12, was found unresponsive in his cell at Central Booking. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate him. Ott was found to have methadone and ethanol in his system, and his cause of death was also ruled as “undetermined.”
In December, Andre “Shawn” Fennell, 49, died at the facility. Fennell, who was booked in September on breaking and entering charges, collapsed in a corridor in front of facility staff. Like Mitchell, Bellamy and Ott, Fennell also had drugs in his system before his death.
Earlier this month, Levi Davis Jr., 46, was found unresponsive in a holding cell in the Metropolitan Transition Center adjacent to Central Booking. Davis was taken into custody on Memorial Day after police say they found him shoplifting two bottles of Listerine. Medical examiners have not reached a conclusion on Davis’ death, according to Corrections spokesman Gerard Shields.
Black, a retired registered nurse, said, “These deaths seem preventable from an everyday common sense point,” and raised the question of whether Narcan — a device that delivers naloxone, an opioid-overdose antidote often carried by first responders — was involved in any of the medical staff’s interventions.
Holding up the pamphlet, Black pointed to the crowd of protesters and said, “It could have been any of us.”
The protest Thursday was quiet and calm. There were no chants or marches. It was a gathering for those searching for answers and a safe space to mourn over the lives lost inside Central Booking and other prison facilities.
“We may make this an every-Thursday occasion,” Black said. “This is not over.”
