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Family Members Search for Answers After Mother Dies Less Than 12 Hours After Being Booked Into Detroit Jail

The family of a woman who died in the Wayne County Jail in Detroit last week says they believe the sweltering conditions inside the jail are what led to their loved one’s death.

Arthur Simpson said he and his family were on their way to bond his mother, Martha Stanley, out of jail when they received the heartbreaking news Stanley had gone into cardiac arrest and died.

According to local station FOX 2, the city was in the midst of a heat wave and the cooling system inside the jail wasn’t working. Stanley’s family said she’d called them the morning before complaining it was so hot she couldn’t breathe — a less-than-ideal environment for a 59-year-old woman suffering from a heart condition.

“It was hot outside,” Simpson told the station. “I saw them take her. And within 48 hours later, she is dead inside the jail. What happened? That’s what I want to know.”

Simpson said his mother did not have her heart medication at the time and was in the process of detoxing from drugs. He said he and his family were doing their best to get Stanley out of jail after she called to complain the Wayne County Jail’s facilities weren’t working properly.

She wasn’t the only one who fretted over the jail’s faulty cooling system, however. Another woman who spoke to FOX 2 said her son also phoned her to complain about the unbearable heat and lack of water at a time when outside temperatures had climbed well into the 90’s. She described the conditions as “inhumane”

“When you have a weather condition and the cooling system in the jail isn’t working like it should be and it’s hot like that, and you have people with heat exhaustion, [and] you can’t breathe right, what can you do?” Simpson continued. “…You ask them and you don’t get it, then what do you do?”

Officials with the Wayne County Sheriff’s office confirmed Stanley died less than 12 hours after being booked into the county jail on Wednesday, FOX 2 reported. The Wayne County Administration said it’s aware of issues with the jail’s cooling system and that maintenance is currently working to fix it. They don’t believe the lack of air conditioning played a direct role in Stanley’s death, however.

In the meantime, sheriff’s officials said they’re working to get portable cooling systems into the jail until they can get the HVAC system back up and running.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner will perform Stanley’s autopsy to determine an official cause of death. Her family still argues her death could have been prevented.

“She needed medical treatment and she didn’t get it clearly,” Simpson said.

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