#JusticeForShali

My son, Shali Tilson, was 22 years old when he was arrested on March 3, 2018 for a mental health crisis he was experiencing at the time. In the midst of his mental health crisis, instead of being given medical attention, officers arrested my son for disorderly conduct. As for many families across the nation, we tried to post his bail but weren't able to do so due to the amount. My son sat in jail for nine (9) days and at his last visit with the medical nurse he had lost 20 pounds. The jail placed him on "suicide watch" in a cell with no bed, toilet, or any source of water. It has now been revealed that on the ninth day of his incarceration, Shali died of dehydration! In the video of his last hours, you can see my son pressing the call button for assistance, beating on the door and verbally pleading for help. As a mother, I should have never had to see my son tortured to death by the very people who are supposed to serve and protect us. My son is dead because of a mental health crisis which should have led him to a doctor instead of an empty cell unsuitable for any human to die.

In March 2018, we filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff department to ensure we received justice for my son. In response to our questions, the Sheriff went to Facebook and created a post mocking our questions, insulting our intelligence and telling us to "humble ourselves until an investigation was completed." Months later another person died in the same jail due to poor leadership by the Rockdale County Sheriff department and the lack of attention to inmates with medical issues. After many people speaking out in protest, the District Attorney's office impaneled a civil Grand Jury to investigate Shali's death. Up until this time our family hadn't received any documents or videos regarding my son's death. In September 2019, a "good Samaritan/whistleblower" provided a copy of a video to our family attorney which captured my son's final agonizing hours in jail leading up to his death. The Rockdale County Sheriff's Office had this video in their possession for 16 months and never made it available to my family or the public. The video showed that even though the Sheriff Department's policy required my son to be checked every 15 minutes, he laid motionless on the floor of his cell for over 2 hours before being discovered. To date, no Rockdale County Deputy Sheriff or employee has been terminated or charged criminally in my son's death despite evidence which revealed that routine safety check logs were falsified following his death.

Furthermore, the special Grand Jury impaneled by Rockdale County's District Attorney Alisha A. Johnson released an 84 page special Grand Jury presentation. The letter from District Attorney Johnson reads, "The Grand Jury found that medical, mental health, and jail staff through complacency, reluctance, assumptions and lack of procedures, training, leadership, and adherence to policy, failed to recognize and adequately address the mental state and physical decline of Shali Tilson."

My son's incident with Rockdale County Jail further reveals the need to take a hard look at the bond system, the need for law enforcement to receive training on how to better handle those experiencing a mental health breakdown while in police custody, and the need to abolish solitary confinement as it exacerbates current mental health issues or creates them. Instead of getting a call that my son died, I should have received a call that my son was in the hospital. As we're in a COVID-19 world, these issues are only expanding even more. We must make the necessary changes to ensure this never happens again and to see that we get #JusticeForShali.