Custody is about responsibility.
There is a chain of custody for evidence, showing who was in possession at any given time. A bank might have custody of a financial asset.
And someone under arrest or convicted could be in the custody of police or a jail.
When that happens, the legal authorities holding the individual are not just in charge on paper. They are responsible for the person’s health and welfare — and physical safety.
On Tuesday, police charged eight men in the assault of Tyrone Good at Allegheny County Jail. They say Kendall McKoy, Justin Allen, Delvonte Woodson, Jerrell Rockymore, Mark Beavers, Tavarius Lee, Shawn Davis and Anthony Schmitt beat Good to death in his cell on May 13, just 20 minutes after he was moved out of solitary confinement.
The men will face a jury over those accusations. But there is a difference between being responsible for his death and responsible for his life.
When the county assumed custody, it assumed responsibility for more than confinement. It assumed responsibility for the basic welfare of a human being who could no longer protect himself by simply walking away.
Incidents like these are, sadly, not rare. According to a study in the Journal of Surgical Research, 21% of incarcerated males in the U.S. are physically assaulted every six months, with 40% of those sustaining injuries. The Bureau of Justice Statistics says there are 30 to 40 homicides in local jails each year, with another 140 to 150 occurring in state and federal prisons.
Every death in custody — whether homicide, suicide or accident — is a failure of that custody.
Good was accused of terrible crimes — the murder of Michelle Sturdivant and the beating, burning and dumping of her body.
But the duty of custody is meant to protect everyone.
County jails, department holding cells and squad car back seats are filled with people accused of crimes but not yet found guilty. That’s important to remember, but it’s not why the obligation exists.
The responsibility extends even to the most hardened, least deserving criminal. It does not disappear when a verdict is delivered or a sentence passed.
It is easy to dismiss deaths in custody, to shrug and say “who cares” when talking about people already categorized as criminals.
But that is exactly why the responsibility to care for everyone locked in a cell or handcuffed in a police station matters. It isn’t about what a person accused of a crime did or didn’t do, deserves or doesn’t deserve.
It is about what we expect from the people and agencies acting on behalf of the public. It is about what they do in our name.