Jeffrey Pendleton was found dead in a jail cell in Manchester, New Hampshire, on March 13. His death can be chalked up to a number of issues: the paradox of overbearing yet negligent policing, America’s addiction to criminalizing the poor and homeless, the uninhabitable conditions of local jails, and how cities make bank from those paradoxes, bigotries and conditions. His death also illuminates how the ridiculously paltry wages inside the food-service sector leave its workers vulnerable to the predatory nature of these factors.
It would be great if we could say that these issues represent the worst of how cities run; instead, we know that they are embedded in the essential functions of the civic ecosystem. People like Pendleton are not residents in these systems, they are the victims of it.
Pendleton was arrested on March 8 for a simple marijuana possession charge and was placed the next day in Manchester’s Valley Street Jail. It’s a facility notorious for having paid out nearly $1 million in court settlementsbetween 2008 and 2013 for its poor treatment of inmates. Pendleton ended up there because he was unable to pay $100 for bail. Five days later, he was found dead in his cell. Local coroners have ruled out physical trauma as a cause of death. Pendleton’s family says that medical examiners in Arkansas, where he lived before coming to New Hampshire, have found possible evidence of physical harm.
[For more of this story, written by Brentin Mock, go to http://www.citylab.com/crime/2...ey-pendleton/475461/]
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