Deonte Shaw went to jail in Raymond, Mississippi, after a traffic stop last October. By New Year's Eve, he came home in a wheelchair, unable to walk or speak on his own. His girlfriend says she spent weeks trying to get answers from the Hinds County Detention Center before anyone would tell her he'd been badly hurt. Medical records reviewed by Mississippi Today describe his injury as an assault, but county officials deny he was ever beaten, claiming instead that he suffered a drug-related medical emergency.

This isn't an isolated case. The U.S. Department of Justice found conditions at this jail unconstitutional back in 2015, including failing to keep inmates safe from violence, and the facility has been under a federally appointed monitor ever since. Just days before Shaw's lawsuit was filed, an 18-year-old inmate was stomped to death in the same jail.

No matter what someone is accused of, they shouldn't lose the right to come out of jail alive and unharmed. Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones and the Hinds County Board of Supervisors have the power to release security footage and internal records to independent investigators, and to commit publicly to fixing the conditions that keep producing tragedies like this one.

Families shouldn't have to sue the county just to learn what happened to someone they love. Sign this petition to demand an independent investigation into violence at the Hinds County Detention Center, full transparency for families like Shaw's, and real accountability before the next person doesn't come home at all.