For three years, Melisia Taylor has been fighting for answers about what happened prior to her son’s death inside MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution.
She marked the three-year anniversary of that death Thursday with a lawsuit aimed at holding the Department of Correction accountable for the death of Jamari Taylor.
“I will never give up on him, to the day I die,” Taylor said.
Taylor struggled to breathe while inside his cell on Feb. 8, 2021, and ultimately died because of a lack of oxygen to his brain. The state medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.
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Taylor’s family doesn’t accept that answer, though.
“I give them my son on Dec. 19, 2020, a healthy 19-year-old, just to see him dead two months later,” Melisia Taylor said.
The lawsuit notes the DOC failed to do a required health assessment when Jamari entered prison. He was being held on bond while awaiting trial on gun-related charges.
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The lawsuit also notes that Jamari's cellmate had to press an emergency alarm three times before a correction officer notified two others to respond to the cell.
Video obtained by NBC Connecticut in 2022 shows the officers seeming to casually respond.
“On camera, we have Connecticut Department of Correction officers walking — literally dragging their feet responding to a person, a 19-year-old man dying in his jail cell,” Alex Taubes, the family’s attorney, said.
The lawsuit also claims a correction officer could be heard “doubting the need for help at the cell and conveying that doubt.”
A DOC spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment, including questions about whether the three officers faced disciplinary action. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, which defends state agencies in lawsuits, declined to comment.
Melisia Taylor said her son was a good person who fell in with the wrong crowd. Jamari was planning to turn his life around. He was expected to be released on bond the day he died and had a job interview lined up for two days later.
“He loved his family,” Melisia said. “The two of us had a bond like mom and sons do.”
She said her son had dreams of opening a business designing t-shirts. Now, Melisia wants to hold the DOC accountable. She also wants changes at the DOC to prevent this from happening to others. That includes changing policies on how correction officers monitor inmates and respond to emergencies.
Taubes, meanwhile, said judges should learn from Jamari's death by changing their use of bail to hold people in prison while criminal cases are pending. He also said the legislature should consider bail reform.
“Being in jail while you’re trying to fight your case may not just hurt your case, it might take your life,” he said.
Democrats have tried to push for bail reform in the past. Rep. Steven Stafstrom (D-Bridgeport) said it’s possible they’ll propose a bill again this year.
“Bail reform in Connecticut is coming,” Stafstrom, co-chair of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.”
