A person died of thirst in Clarke’s jail. Why’s he getting a promotion?
Terrill Thomas died of thirst at the Milwaukee County (Wis.) Jail run by Sheriff David Clarke, and as shocking as his death was, it’s no more shocking than the discovery of a dead newborn inside the jail. You read that right. A dead baby inside Clark’s jail. An inmate went into labor inside a cell. She reportedly screamed for deputies to come help her. Nobody did.
Thomas died of thirst in April 2016. According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, Shade Swayzer, who was arrested when she was 8-1/2 months pregnant, went into labor that July. Some facts are in dispute. Swayzer says the baby was born alive. A company providing medical care for the child says the child was stillborn. But whether the baby was born alive or whether the baby was born alive, there should have been guards arounds so Swayzer wasn’t forced to give birth alone in a cell.
In a fair world, the person in charge of the jail would be forever banished for public service. But in Donald Trump’s world, such a person gets a promotion. Sheriff David Clarke has said he’s joining the Trump administration to work as a deputy secretary of Homeland Security.
The Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions appointments were horrible, but at least they don’t have a dead baby or a victim of thirst on their records.
Earlier this month, after an inquest jury investigating Thomas’ death recommended criminal charges against seven people at the jail. Sheriff Clarke is not among the seven and if a prosecutor accepts the jury’s recommendation and does bring charges, there doesn’t appear to be much of a chance that he will face criminal charges himself.
But that doesn’t make him blameless. He was the leader of that jail, and he deserves blame for what happened there.
What kind of world are we living in, where a person who ran a jail as horribly as Clarke ran his gets a promotion to the federal government?
Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA. COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.com or at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry .
