A 41-year-old man died in the Arlington County Detention Center on Tuesday after he was “found unresponsive in his cell” at the jail’s medical unit, according to the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office. The man, Paul Thompson, is the seventh person to die at the jail in the last seven years, and advocates are once again sounding the alarm about the disturbing pattern, which has mostly affected Black men in their 40s and 50s. 

“This is serious,” said Julius Spain, president of the Arlington NAACP chapter, in an interview with DCist/WAMU. “What we at the NAACP want our community and citizens to know and understand is that … showing up at our detention facility should not be a death sentence.”

Arlington County police are investigating the cause of Thompson’s death, according to a press release from the county sheriff’s office. Thompson was being detained in the jail pre-trial on a trespassing charge, and Arlington County Sheriff Beth Arthur told DCist/WAMU that he had been seen by a doctor just an hour and a half before he was found unresponsive. 

The NAACP chapter issued a statement late Tuesday, writing that it met the news of Thompson’s death with “great sorrow and revulsion.” The statement said the chapter has still received no information about what led to the deaths of the last two men in custody in the county. Nor, the statement added, has Sheriff Beth Arthur “disclosed reforms, if any, made to guarantee the health, welfare, and safety of those she and her command team are charged with protecting.”

Tara Johnson, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told DCist/WAMU that the facility has made changes in response to deaths of people in custody — including changes to drug testing and scanning policies in response to an overdose death. But she said that it was difficult to get into specifics about other reforms the office has made, because several deaths are under active investigation by the police department and the office wants to “preserve the integrity” of those investigations.

Arthur told DCist/WAMU that she is, contrary to the NAACP’s statement, absolutely willing to provide information about multiple specific policy changes she has made in response to deaths at the jail. She told DCist/WAMU that “in each case when we’ve had an individual that died in the jail, we always look at the case and the circumstances that surround that case and make decisions on whether we need to make any adjustments to operations.” Arthur pointed to extensive changes in response to the overdose death, as well as changes the jail made after 46-year-old Darryl Becton died in custody in 2020. After Becton’s death, Arthur said, the jail also changed its policies to ensure that people who were detoxing were checked by staff on every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. Arthur added that the police department had charged someone with falsifying a patient record in connection with Becton’s death, and she is in the process of hiring someone to focus on quality assurance and making sure all vendors hired at the jail are properly fulfilling their contract obligations.

Arthur said in a phone interview that she takes every in-custody death personally.

“It is something that we are diligently working on every single day, 24 hours a day to ensure the safety and security of everyone remanded to our custody,” said Arthur.

A spokesperson for the Arlington County Government wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday that “a death of any member of the Arlington County community is a cause for concern.”

“We are saddened over the passing of Mr. Thompson and share our condolences to his family and loved ones,” wrote the spokesperson. “The Sheriff’s Office and Arlington County Police Department have our full support as they conduct a thorough investigation. As it is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further on the matter.”

“Our condolences go out to [Thompson’s] family and loved ones during this difficult time,” the sheriff’s office also wrote in its press release on Tuesday.

But the county NAACP, which has been calling for further accountability for the repeated deaths of Black men in county custody, wrote in its statement that “condolences ring hollow.”

“The NAACP’s national motto, ‘We Are Done Dying,’ sadly applies but will our elected officials and the government listen this time?” said the letter, which added that the chapter is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to immediately open investigations of the seven deaths, and to investigate “the arrest and incarceration patterns in Arlington County.” 

Arthur also added that she shared advocates’ concern about why Thompson, who was arrested on trespassing charges, was in the jail in the first place.

“I don’t disagree with anybody that thinks that somebody that is arrested on charges of trespassing shouldn’t be in jail,” said Arthur. But, she added, “I don’t make those decisions. I’m responsible for the individuals remanded to our custody.”

In October, 58-year-old Clyde Spencer, who was also in the jail on a trespassing charge, was found unresponsive in the jail’s medical unit and later pronounced dead. His death is being investigated by the Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team, a regional law enforcement group formed in January to examine deaths and other serious incidents. But advocates have cast doubt on the impartiality of the investigation; Spain described it as “police investigating police,” a process he says does not give him confidence.

Weeks later, the county announced that it was terminating its contract with Corizon Correctional Healthcare, the company that had provided healthcare services in the Arlington jail since 2006 — and has been the subject of multiple lawsuits in other jurisdictions over its treatment of incarcerated people. Johnson said Wednesday that the county had signed a new contract for medical services with MEDIKO, a Virginia-based company that came into the jail on an emergency basis after the county terminated its contract with Corizon. 

And Arlington County police are also still investigating the death of Becton, who died after cardiac arrest in the jail in October of 2020. Spain, with the county NAACP, told DCist/WAMU that Becton’s family has retained counsel and “is working diligently for some level of resolve.” 

“When is enough enough? When are our elected leaders, county officials, state, federal — when are they going to start looking into this matter and figuring out what is going on?” asked Spain. He also cast doubt on the ability of county leadership — including Arthur — to respond to the pattern. “We should all demand accountability. And if we can’t get accountability, then we need to find … leaders who are going to be responsible and accountable.”

This story was updated to include a statement from the Arlington County Government and comments from the Arlington County sheriff’s office, and to clarify the process for checking on people who are detoxing at the jail.