A NEW VIDEO shows a 37-year-old woman telling police “I don’t want to die in your cell”, just hours before she was found dead in jail in the Cleveland suburb of Cleveland Heights.
Ralkina Jones was arrested on 24 July after allegedly assaulting her ex-husband, and taken to Cleveland Heights jail, where she died during the night of 25-26 July.
A video released by local police and recorded from the body camera of an officer at the jail, shows Jones and two officers discussing her medical difficulties, and need to take several different medications.
Police in the jail appear polite and concerned for her well-being, expressing a desire to prevent her from withdrawing from Alprazolam, a generic version of the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax.
Jones was also prescribed Gabapentin for migraines, Adderall for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and mentioned having suffered concussions, allegedly as a result of physical abuse by her ex-husband.
My main concern is my POTS syndrome [postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome]…What happens is, when I go from a sitting to a standing position, I faint.
One of the officers suggested Jones should speak with the jail’s resident victims’ advocate, and proposed a large cell with access to a phone, so she could stay in contact with her family, and arrange care for her 12-year-old daughter.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Jones ultimately took a cell closer to the main hallway, to ensure prison staff could regularly check on her.
She was brought to a medical clinic and examined by a doctor on the evening of 25 July, but sent back to the jail shortly afterwards.
Police say they checked in on Jones throughout that night, but she was found dead in her bed at 7.30 am on Sunday 26 July.
Her family are keenly awaiting the results of a full autopsy, but an initial statement by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner said they had found “no suspicious injuries.”
However, some observers have drawn comparisons between the death of Ralkina Jones, who was black, and that of Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in police custody in Texas last month, in disputed circumstances.
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