The Arlington branch of the NAACP is calling for a federal investigation into the county’s jail, where seven men of color have died in custody in seven years. In a letter to the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division, the organization also alleged evidence of “biased policing and unconstitutional practices by law enforcement and personnel” in the jail.

“The most precious civil right – the right to life – should never be extinguished simply because the Sheriff in a local jail holds someone. These seven men were among the most vulnerable in our community,” the letter reads. “Their deaths have devastated their families and the people of Arlington County and lay bare a pattern of deprivation of fundamental civil rights that mandates investigation and action.”

“We are completely open to any type of independent review,” said Maj. Tara Johnson, a spokesperson for Arlington County Sheriff Beth Arthur, who oversees the detention facility. Johnson noted that the department has already formalized an agreement with the National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency that provides support and guidance to state and federal correctional facilities. The NIC, which operates within the Department of Justice, will review the operations at the jail’s medical unit and provide technical assistance, Johnson said.

“The sheriff wants it done a month ago,” Johnson said. “This is her priority.”

The NAACP’s request to the Justice Department comes just days after the family of one of the men who died in custody filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the sheriff, a deputy, the company that was previously contracted to run the jail’s medical unit, and medical staff. Darryl Becton, 46, died of complications from opiate withdrawal, a treatable condition, days after arriving at the jail due for a probation violation.

Arlington County announced it was ending its years-long contract with Corizon Health, the jail’s health provider since 2006, in October 2021. Earlier the same month, another man, Clyde Spencer, 58, died in custody. According to the NAACP letter, Spencer “was dependent on alcohol and had a heart condition,” facts jail staff could have known because of previous incarceration for minor public intoxication and trespassing charges.

News reports from across the country have documented other allegations of substandard medical care against Corizon Health, and, following a police investigation into Becton’s death, the Arlington commonwealth’s attorney has brought charges against one of the company’s employees, a licensed practical nurse named Antoine Smith, for falsifying a medical record.

Four other men have died in custody since 2015. That year, Antony Gordon, 48, died in October, and Edward Straughn, 53, died in December. Bennie Turner, 40, died in April 2017, and Jitesh Patel, 43, died in 2019. All those deaths, plus the deaths of Becton and Spencer, happened while Corizon Health operated the medical unit.

A new medical provider, MEDIKO, took over providing care in the jail in November 2021. But in February 2022, another person died in custody: Paul Thompson, 41.

Most of the men who died in custody in Arlington were Black.

The sheriff’s office has conducted internal audits in response to the deaths, and the department has made some changes to its policies as a result. At the time of Thompson’s death, Arthur said the jail had changed policies in response to the deaths, particularly when incarcerated people are detoxing, as was the case with Becton. The jail has also changed some drug testing protocols. Arthur also said she was working on hiring a person to assure quality of services and to oversee jail vendors and hold them to their contracts.

Johnson, the sheriff’s spokesperson, said the department expects the hiring to be finished in the next two weeks.

A number of other county, regional and state agencies have been involved in investigating the deaths, including Arlington police, who investigated Becton and Thompson’s deaths, according to Johnson, and the Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team, which investigated Thompson’s death. All deaths, Johnson said, are also reviewed by the state Department of Corrections.

Johnson and county leadership say they aren’t always at liberty to discuss their findings because of ongoing criminal investigations, but the NAACP says more should be done to provide the public with information.

“There has been a total lack of transparency into investigations, answers about the circumstances of the deaths, or any discussion of the root cause of what has become a tragic pattern,” the NAACP said in its letter asking the Justice Department to intervene. “There has been no accountability, and there has been no meaningful strategy for stopping the pattern.”