Name: Transgender woman who died in Cuyahoga County Jail wrote letter criticizing jail conditions before her death
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Transgender woman who died in Cuyahoga County Jail wrote letter criticizing jail conditions before her death

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NEW!2,541sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — Before Lea Daye became the latest Cuyahoga County Jail inmate to die in her cell, she penned a letter about poor conditions in the facility. She stashed it away, fearful that jail guards would find and destroy it.Daye’s mother discovered the letter when she collected her 28-year-old daughter’s belongings from the jail after her Aug. 30 death.Daye wrote that she planned to send the letter after her release from jail, but she did not name its intended recipient. She wrote that the food was cold, smelled bad and that the portions they served to inmates were too small, the letter says.“I think a six year old would [eat] more than that,” she wrote.She also described a meal where the pasta was cold and the meat both smelled bad and tasted like cleaning chemicals. The inmates refused to eat it and complained to the jail staff and kitchen workers, who did nothing, the letter says.Daye also wrote that the jail failed to do inmates' laundry and didn’t provide supplies so the inmates could clean their cells.“These conditions have gotten worse and more out of control due to the COVID-19,” she wrote. “I hope something is done about these conditions.”Food service at the jail has been a source of criticism since a report that the food served by in-house staff was rotten, that the kitchen area was infested with vermin and that staff used moldy serving trays.The county in June contracted with Trinity Services Group forover three years to take care of inmate meals. The Florida-based company has been the subject of critical media reports over the quality of food served at jails and prisons across the country. The company offered to a list of complaints as Cuyahoga County Council decided on approving the contract.Because Daye’s letter is undated, it is unknown who was in charge of food service at the time of her complaints.Mark White, a spokesman for the company, said Trinity has no knowledge of the letter or incident.Daye’s letter is her last known communication since her May 17 arrest of robbery charges. Her mother, Felicia Daye, said she’s been poring over the letter, along with messages she traded back and forth with her daughter in the months leading up to her death.“It made me sick to my stomach when I found that letter,” Felicia Daye said.Lea Daye’s aunt, Sherika Clark, said the last time she spoke to her niece they planned to celebrate Lea’s May 7 birthday. But Clark had to work late, so she sent money to her niece through a cash app.“We always liked to go out and get cocktails,” Clark said. “She liked her crop-tops. She liked to be pretty. And she just wanted to be herself. She didn’t want to be judged.”Bullying led to hard timesFelicia Daye said her daughter loved spending time with her family, going out dancing and making sure she looked just right when she went out.She idolized the singers Rhianna and Aaliyah and aspired to be a model, her mother said. She worked off and on at the City Mission homeless shelter on Carnegie Avenue and stayed either there or at the 2100 Men’s Shelter on Lakeside Avenue.Lea was one of eight siblings and struggled growing up in Cleveland. She attended Garfield Heights High School and endured bullying for being different, her mother said. She liked to wear flashy clothes, wear her hair long and put on light makeup, her mother said.“She liked her girly clothes,” Felicia Daye said. “There was a lot of bullying in the Garfield Heights school system.”Felicia Daye said the bullying and struggles sometimes boiled over and her daughter ended up in bad situations, including the recent arrest on accusations that she threw a brick at a man outside the 2100 Men’s Homeless Shelter.Daye never asked for help posting bond. Felicia Daye believed that her daughter felt she needed to take some time away from her problems and get her life back on track.“She acted out in ways as a child,” Felicia Daye. “When we’d sit down and talk she said it was because she was hiding who she wanted to become because she was scared. She said a lot of the acting out she did was because of the bullying she endured.”Felicia Daye said her daughter was in the midst of transitioning and was using hormone replacement therapy. Lea Daye was held in the area of the jail reserved for men. Her mother said among the questions that have so far gone unanswered is if her daughter’s gender identity played any role in her death.Four Northeast Ohio LGBTQ rights organizations and advocates for the homeless—The Coalition to Stop the Inhumanity at the Cuyahoga County Jail, Equality Ohio, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland—criticized Cuyahoga County officials over and their misidentification of her.They also pointed out that both Lea Daye and Michael Wormick, who died in the jail on July 7, were homeless at the time of their incarceration.“Lea spent the last 105 days of her life in the custody of a system that could not even afford her the basic dignity of releasing and reporting to the public her correct name and gender after her passing,” the group’s joint statement said.Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan declined to comment on the group’s statement.Questions left unansweredCuyahoga County has released few details about Daye’s death, which happened duringat the jail. A jail supervisor’s report and medical examiner notes reviewed by say her cellmate found her unconscious about 3:30 a.m., some five hours after she was last seen alive.Both reports said Daye was known to hide medication distributed in the jail by by wedging it in her cheek, and later storing it in her cell. The jail supervisor’s report said MetroHealth nurses, who are in charge of passing out and ensuring inmates take their medication, caught Daye hiding medication a few days before her death.The medical examiner records also said Daye struggled with heroin, cocaine, prescription pill and alcohol use and survived two overdoses. Daye’s mother and her aunt said they were unaware of Daye’s drug use and questioned if that information was accurate.“She would have shared that with me,” Clark said. “I know that for a fact. But she never did.”Felicia Daye said medical examiner investigators told her there were signs her daughter may have died of an overdose, but that they needed to wait for the results of toxicology to know for sure.“When they came and told me she passed away, I just lost it,” Felicia Daye said. “And it still hurts because I don’t know what happened to her.”Felicia Daye said she’s retained an attorney and is considering filing a lawsuit.“She had family that cared,” Clark said. “My sister is out here hurting because she doesn’t get answers from the them. We’re not going to sleep until we get it. The county is going to get what they deserve. They need to be shut the hell down.”Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!2,541sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — Before Lea Daye became the latest Cuyahoga County Jail inmate to die in her cell, she penned a letter about poor conditions in the facility. She stashed it away, fearful that jail guards would find and destroy it.Daye’s mother discovered the letter when she collected her 28-year-old daughter’s belongings from the jail after her Aug. 30 death.Daye wrote that she planned to send the letter after her release from jail, but she did not name its intended recipient. She wrote that the food was cold, smelled bad and that the portions they served to inmates were too...

Transgender woman who died in Cuyahoga County Jail wrote letter criticizing jail conditions before her death

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