MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
Emotions were high as national civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton and Attorney Ben Crump stood beside the family of Ramon McGhee for his memorial service on Tuesday, March 5.
Inmate Ramon McGhee was found unresponsive on Jan. 10, and he was covered in a massive number of lice and bed bugs when he arrived at the hospital. He later died on Jan. 12. His mother, Lisa Shahan Choat, said she wasn’t allowed to see him for months before his death.
"A mother's gut always tells you when something is wrong. And I knew something was wrong,” said Choat.
Crump and Rev. Sharpton not only honored the life of McGhee, but they also shed light on three other inmates who died in the Shelby County Jail over the past few years: Gershun Freeman , Deion Byrd and Marcus Donald.
Freeman died in the Shelby County Jail in Oct. 2022. His father, George Burks, said he is still trying to cope with the pain of losing his son.
“When they go to 201 Poplar, they're supposed to protect. They didn't protect. They failed us, and I'm hurting,” said Burks.
Activists are accusing the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office of a pattern of abuse and mistreatment in the jail.
"Institutional negligence is a crime. We're going to make sure Shelby County feels national pressure,” said Rev. Sharpton.
The Shelby County Sheriff's office released a statement in Feb. 2023, saying in part that efforts are underway to restructure their security operations team to keep similar incidents from happening again. But activists said they will continue to shed light on that and other reforms.
Crump and Rev. Sharpton are calling for the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. Crump said if they do, it would be the first time he's ever seen the DOJ investigate a police department and a sheriff's department in the same city at the same time.