811 People Have Died in Jail Since Sandra Bland Became National News

Almost a year to the day later, there remain plenty of outstanding questions about the death of Sandra Bland in a Waller County, Texas jail. Though cops and other officials say Bland committed suicide by hanging herself in her jail cell, there are justifiable reasons to be suspicious of that account, from questions about the integrity of the original dashcam video to the excessive force displayed by the arresting officer in the video to the long history of state-sanctioned violence against black Americans.
We may never know the full story of Bland’s death, but she is an exception to the rule because unlike so many who die in American jails, we do know her name. In the year since Bland’s case became national news, a Huffington Post investigation reveals 811 people have died in U.S. jails. Many of those cases resemble Bland’s, with poor oversight and general disregard for arrestees’ health—particularly their mental state—creating frightening, desperate conditions for inmates that, in too many incidents, have yielded tragic results....
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/811-people-have-died-jail-sandra-bland-became-national-news