The hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do was tell my daughter that her father wasn’t coming home. My husband, Myron Jenkins, was serving eight months in the Federal Detention Center in Miami. Five days before he was released, I was informed that he had died, alone, in his cell. For the last 3 months of his sentence, he had been complaining to me and the corrections officers of severe pain due to a fall he suffered in prison. He said he had asked them constantly for medical treatment to alleviate the pain but all he received was Motrin. Had he gotten the medical care he required, I believe he would still be alive today. 

I am asking the Justice Department to investigate my husband's untimely death so that we can finally find closure.  My husband was days away from starting his new life as a better man, husband, and father to his five children. We need to know why he died.

Myron was working as a janitor in the prison where he was serving time. He was so happy to have the job because it afforded him a small stipend that allowed him to make calls to me and his children. During one day on the job, he fell and injured himself and from that point on he wasn’t the same. I could hear it in his voice and over the last three months before his death, on each call, he sounded more and more listless. He told me officials ignored his requests for more intensive treatment. I guess they believed that nothing serious could have come from a fall. But their mistake may have cost him his life. He died December 12, 2014.

When the prison system takes custody of someone they are obligated to give that person any and all care they need to keep them healthy. According to Myron, this did not happen. And now his children’s last memory of him is behind bars. My husband made mistakes, and he paid the price for them. But that price shouldn’t have included his life. I am asking you from the bottom of my heart to help me get to the bottom of my husband's death. Tell the Justice Department to investigate Myron’s death.