Samantha Dell
Inmate’s Death Under Investigation | Bradenton, FL Patch
A 23-year-old woman is dead following a Monday suicide attempt at the Manatee County Jail.
According to a statement from Sheriff Brad Steube, the woman was found hanging from the top of her cell door on Monday. She was taken to a local hospital in critical condition after correctional officers found her, but died on Wednesday.
The inmate has been identified as Samantha Dell. She was booked into the jail on violation of probation charges on July 3, jail records indicate.
via Inmate’s Death Under Investigation | Bradenton, FL Patch.
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Any time a young offender dies in custody in Florida, I think of the arrests of then-Governor Jeb Bush’s daughter, Noelle, and Jeb’s (mostly honored) request for privacy.
CNN killed the link to their July 18, 2002 article, “Jeb Bush’s daughter jailed for contempt,” which ended with Jeb’s words, ” … I would respectfully ask the media to grant my family privacy during this difficult time.” Salon – the most critical, to my knowledge – has kept their link live.
The likelihood that Noelle Bush would have so much as broken a fingernail in custody was extremely remote. Even if she had gone to prison.
Noelle violated parole, twice.
While I’ll hold out hope that the investigation of Samantha Dell’s death will be on the up-and-up, I won’t hold my breath.
This is Florida, steeped in a relentless history of dead school boys and dead inmates, worse all around under Rick Scott than it was under Jeb, with Charlie Crist’s felon rights restoration and other reforms in between the other two now governors only a bittersweet memory. Mind you, Crist was no angel. While I’ll hold out hope that he’ll he step up and make up for lost time on obvious frame-ups, I won’t hold my breath.
Noelle Bush, mug shots
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