Memphis organization dedicates $50K for bail for nonviolent offenders after man dies in jail custody

Just City Memphis is dedicating $50,000 toward posting bail for people being held pretrial in honor of Rockez McDaniel, a 33-year-old who died while in custody awaiting arraignment in late July. (Getty Images)

Memphis organization Just City dedicated $50,000 toward paying bail for low-level offenders on Friday in honor of Rockez McDaniel, a 33-year-old who recently died while awaiting arraignment in the Shelby County jail.

McDaniel faced misdemeanor charges for evading arrest and escape after officers arrested him in response to a mental health call, according to court documents.

Officers tased McDaniel after he shoved one of the responding officers in an attempt to escape, police say. He made a second attempt to escape after being taken to Regional One Hospital for unspecified medical treatment. 

After being medically cleared at the hospital, McDaniel was taken to the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center, also known as 201 Poplar. There he stayed — without arraignment or assigned legal representation — for seven days until his death.

His bond was set at $1,000 — a price he was unable to pay for his release, according to Just City.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reported that McDaniel died on July 28 after experiencing a “medical emergency” while in custody. 

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the circumstances that led to his death. An autopsy is being performed, according to TBI.

Organizations launch Rockez McDaniel Bailout

In response, Just City and a coalition of local organizations launched the Rockez McDaniel Bailout, an emergency $50,000 allocation from Just City’s Memphis Community Bail Fund.

The bailout effort is targeting people who have been incarcerated in the jail for about a week with little or no movement in their case. Just City typically pays a maximum bail of $4,000 per person, a bail threshold that is generally set for lower-level charges. The organization also completes internal checks on types of charges and history before issuing bail payments.

“It didn’t take us long to find 30 people who are in a position that is very vulnerable if they have any sort of health problems at all,” Just City Executive Director Josh Spickler told Tennessee Lookout. 

“These are people who have not been convicted of a crime, have not faced a judge or a jury, and who have not received a sentence, yet they are being held in dangerous, inhumane conditions for weeks on end,” Spickler said. “The purpose of the Rockez McDaniel Bailout is to locate and free as many of them as we can before another life is lost to the Sheriff’s negligence and disorganization.”

The organization’s Memphis Community Bail Fund posted pretrial bail for about 500 people from 2015 to 2020, according to a 5-year report published by Just City. Of those bail fund clients, 91% returned to court, the organization reported.

Organizations demand accountability from Sheriff’s Office

Just City and partnering organizations also issued three demands to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Those include:

• Releasing a training plan and committing employees and resources to the jail’s intake and release departments, with the goal of reducing booking time to 36 hours by Sept. 1, and further reducing it to 25 hours by the end of 2025.
• Releasing a plan for employees to monitor the daily jail roster for people who have not been taken to court or received appointed counsel within 48 hours of booking, with the goal of getting all inmates to court within 72 hours of booking.
• Releasing a plan to divert people with diagnosed mental health conditions to available resources within 24 hours of arrival, with the goal of entirely avoiding booking people who are experiencing mental health episodes into the jail by Jan. 1.

A representative from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. 

Just City Bail Fund and Advocacy Coordinator Laramie Wheeler said McDaniel would still be alive had he been taken to court as scheduled.

Court records show McDaniel’s arraignment was initially set for July 21, the day after his arrest. Bail screening forms showed the court did not recommend release without supervision because of the “nature of offense, probability of conviction and the likely sentence as it relates to the safety of the community.”

But the arraignment — and a required bail hearing review — never happened. The court date was rescheduled to July 22, and then to July 28, before finally being pushed to July 29. By that time, McDaniel was dead.

“From what we can tell, the thing that got in the way, the thing that caused Mr. McDaniel to die at the hospital after being found unresponsive in intake, was that he had not been taken to court,” Wheeler said.

“Rockez McDaniel would still be here if the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office had done their job,” she said. “And the family, his friends, all of us here today — we want to know why he was never seen in court. We want to know why he was never assigned an attorney. We want to know why they did not do their jobs … No one deserves to die while being held in jail.”

Sheriff’s Office has requested funds for new jail

The Sheriff’s Office issued a news release on July 24 — four days before McDaniel’s death — advocating for funding for a new jail facility. The release cites a rise in bookings, court slowdowns, and delays state transfers for inmates who have been convicted and sentenced to time in a state penitentiary. 

Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Jr. hired retired Criminal Court Judge Bobby Carter to assist in working with other criminal justice agencies to reduce the jail’s population. Bonner also employs an “Expeditor” who “attempts to get cases on the docket more quickly when inmates are hospitalized” and assists in obtaining more rapid mental health evaluations and testing, according to the release.

“(Bonner) is also moving many of those charged with misdemeanors to another part of the jail to keep them safe while they are awaiting court appearances, bond, release, etc.,” the release states.

The jail staffs a mental health team, including a full-time director and part-time psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, according to the jail’s website. 

It’s not clear what, if any, treatment or resources McDaniel received while in custody.

Spickler rejects the idea that a new jail is a solution. 

“(McDaniel’s death) did not happen because the jail was 50 years old,” he said. “This happened because a whole chain of people did not do their jobs. Most of them work for the sheriff.”