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Eight of the top 11 trending topics in the US are about a jail death — a not-at-all-rare occurrence across our jails and prisons — but at least half of those trending topics (more like 5/8) are about diverging conspiracy theories percolating in real time surrounding that death. 
And no one on any side likes hearing this! Congrats, all!
And, of course, one of the trending topics is a misspelling of his name. Yeah, this about sums it ALL up.
From @msainat1 in May: "Why are so many people dying in US prisons and jails?" theguardian.com/us-news/2019/m…
@msainat1 Nine people died in the Cuyahoga County Jail in the past 14 months in Ohio, leading activists there just this past week to push for changes: cleveland.com/court-justice/…
@msainat1 Yes, absolutely yes, people should be asking questions about Epstein's death — but that's not the same as drawing instantaneous conclusions.
@msainat1 The truth is that a look into jail and prison deaths would lead people to see how common this is — and hopefully that would lead people to ask questions about how and why our jails and prisons often are run in such a way that deaths like these are basically inevitable.
And, there go my mentions! Have a good day, all!
Maybe if we didn’t have a system that allowed regular jail and prison deaths and maybe if we had a system that adequately held officials responsible for jail conditions, we would have an easier way of assessing a death like Epstein’s because it actually would stand out.
Unlike many of those other deaths, though, and because of who Epstein is and associated with, we’re going to spend days, weeks, months — and lots of money and reporting — looking into this one death, seeking evidence of whether it’s aberrant or part of some conspiracy.
And jail and prison deaths will continue happening during that time. And officials won’t, in most cases, be held to account for those deaths. Unless we actually turn our attention to the underlying circumstances that allowed this to happen, and not just Epstein’s death itself.
Follow @JohnFPfaff for more on this subject. As he put it at one point this afternoon: "The reaction to the Epstein news often reflects that ppl don’t understand JUST how dehumanizing and cruel our system is."
@JohnFPfaff From the excellent 2016 HuffPost jail deaths report from one year after Sandra Bland's jail death: "We found evidence of 811 fatalities—an average of more than two per day." highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/sa…
Follow @WesleyLowery, who knows of what he speaks:
