Jamall Brown died in prison after being denied insulin while in custody at Riverside County Jail. Jayson Slaymaker explains why he thinks medical neglect is so prevalent.
There is a full-page spread in the Monday, February 9, 2026 edition of USA Today regarding the death of Jamall Brown, a 30-year-old man who had been locked up in the Riverside County Jail (California) in 2020 and died of “complications from Type-1 Diabetes” while in custody. More specifically, he went for two days without insulin while jail officials, medical staff, and his cellie watched him die. Sadly, this isn’t news, but everyday fare in American jails and prisons. It only becomes newsworthy when someone cares. But that doesn’t happen until it’s their son, their brother, their dad that dies.
Video Cameras and the Illusion of Accountability
This man’s entire ordeal was captured on video camera, so you might think the matter would be an obvious one. Jails and prisons today have more video cameras than a Hollywood movie set, yet still they can’t sanitize these places or prevent senseless deaths. It makes me wonder if this fact is an indictment against modern technology or us as a society.
In every single case where video footage might clear a wrongly accused person of blame or rightly cast prison/jail officials in a negative light or prove them culpable for wrongdoing, that footage is either edited or disappears altogether. Back in the day, when the cops got mad at you and pulled you out of the house, they carried with them a handheld video camera to document it. The first thing they did upon taking you out of the house, however, is take you into the hallway, turn off the video camera, kick your fucking ass for you, and write you a disciplinary case for “assaulting an officer.”
Control of Information Inside the System
Jails and prisons are all about control. That includes control of the incoming or outgoing flow of information. They have public relations departments that handle just this thing. Any media is sure as fuck not coming inside to witness the reality of operations. Much of this makes it out because they will attempt to discredit it if asked about it. Every jail or prison I’ve ever been to operates according to the adage, “Lie about what you cannot admit to, and admit to what you cannot lie about.”
This is standard protocol in institutional thinking. Prisons serve the boards that oversee them, teachers serve the school board, police agencies serve the courts, doctors serve the medical juggernaut, soldiers serve the military complex, and the government serves its own interests. No institution in America serves the needs of those for whom it was designed to serve. The only people who believe otherwise are those who’ve never had any serious dealings with the “System.”
Institutions and the Power They Hold
St. John the Divine, back in the first century, wrote: “Who can compare with the beast? Who can fight against it?” (Apocalypse 13.4) In the 21st century, we say, “You can’t fight city hall.” In effect, we’ve set up the very institutions that were designed to protect us and serve our needs as golden idols inviolable, answering to no one but themselves.
The USA Today article quotes James Brown, Jamall’s father, as saying that his son “was laboring to get his life back on track while living in a tough neighborhood that could easily derail him.” I could write an essay regarding the irresponsibility and obfuscation in this statement alone. What I will say, however, is this is the standard party line to counter institutional thinking and the public’s sympathy with it. In other words, just as within a fictional story, the protagonist must be portrayed as a basically good guy who’s made some bad choices but is trying to get his life together, or is at least an amiable rogue. If you don’t like him, you won’t cheer for him. The implication is that were Jamall portrayed as your average garden-variety asshole, then he would deserve the treatment he got and you shouldn’t care.
The Importance of the Victim’s Character
Keeping with fiction as the basis for my analogy, it’s commonly believed in our society that in order for someone to be a great artist, they must also be a great (i.e., morally good) person. A good example of this is Sir Thomas Malory of Warwick (c. 1416-1471). When we think, today, of King Arthur, it’s Malory’s adaptation that we’re usually thinking of. But there has long been debate whether this particular Sir Thomas Malory (there were about 15) was really the author of the Le Mort D’Arthur, because the one accredited with its authorship was a thief, robber, extortionist, rapist, murderer, and all-around rascal. He twice escaped from prison in London, and eventually he died there.
I mention this only because, had he been a member of Parliament (the English one, not the Funkadelic), there would be no question as to its authorship. Likewise, if Jamall had been a sitting member of the city council and not sitting in a jail cell, there long ago would have been riots in the streets. George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Rene Nicole Good, events in Ferguson, Missouri. Many believe the first thing a man (or a woman) loses upon being incarcerated is their identity. It’s not. It’s their credibility.
The Stanford Prison Project in 1971 proved that whenever one group of people has absolute control over another group, abuses begin within in a matter a days. There have been other similar studies at Yale and ones going as far back as 1948, all revealing the same thing: absolute power controls absolutely.
Medical Neglect in Prison is a Function of the System Itself
The philosophy surrounding crime and punishment in America can be defined as nothing short of sadistic. It’s largely believed that since we didn’t play fair according to society’s rules, neither should we be treated fairly in our punishment. In other words, we deserve everything that befalls us. Our punishment is not to simply be the loss of our freedoms, but the unspoken additional punishment of being treated like an animal.
Less than an animal, actually. Drug dogs were down here sniffing around yesterday. Three of them. By all accounts, these are some beautiful dogs. Even people like me, who aren’t huge dog lovers, would love to have just one of them. At a glance, it’s glaringly obvious as to how well-treated and cared for these animals are. Hell, most people’s snot-nosed, greasy-haired, hacking, wheezing, and sneezing first graders don’t look so good.
On November 11, 2024, a good friend of ours had a heart attack. He was facedown in the middle of the floor when discovered. The cop who initially found him tried to scoot him out of the way so as to not be so readily seen by any stray passersby. The only reason he made it to the hospital at all is because another cop walked up, saw what was happening, and took immediate action.
Don’t Get Sick in Prison
The reality is, if you have serious health problems while in prison, you’re in last place. Your chances of dying in here have just increased significantly. Prison staff don’t care. Medical staff don’t care. I’ve known more than a few men to have died of heart attacks or other related illnesses in here. Most likely, they would have survived, but no one found them. Or, if they did, they failed to take action because this would’ve involved having to complete extra paperwork.
I’ve seen cops allow men to commit suicide, assaults, and even murders. When the truth surfaces as to what these men did, it usually only results in a loss of rank, minor reprimand, or transfer to another prison. Only sometimes are they fired, but rarely prosecuted. For committing the same crimes that anyone in the public sector would themselves go to prison for, theirs are kept in-house, secret, and go virtually unnoticed by society.
When reports of Jamall Brown’s death began being revealed as having been falsified, witnesses tampered with, and video footage either altered or missing, only then did jail personnel become concerned. For their own asses, most likely. Sgt. Marcus Schultz of Internal Affairs became more forthright with his knowledge. Of course, the article says, “Department officials did not respond to questions about the discrepancy in the reports.” Of course they didn’t.
Does Anyone Care About Medical Neglect in Prison?
The truth is, America’s jail and prison system isn’t just faulty, but completely broken. It’s a blue-eyed miracle they can even get a meal out. Prison, as a deterrent to crime, just doesn’t work. Or, maybe it works just as our society intends it to.
Either way, I don’t expect anyone to be outraged by this or even care other than to pay lip service, or for Jamall’s death to bring about any sort of change in our penal system. I mean, who cares, really? Jamall’s cellie didn’t. The cops didn’t. The medical staff didn’t. So why should I think that the public would? After all, Jamall was just another n**ger in a jail cell. Good riddance. Perfect.
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