My son, Robert Sharp, entered the Cuyahoga County Correction Center on March 24, 2015. He had been transported from Youngstown. While in booking, my son picked up some heroin that another inmate dropped. He and another inmate split up the heroin and went up to a pod in the jail. Jail and medical staff in the jail had enough information to know that my son had heroin. But they did  not help him. The system failed my son. 

First the medical staff gave him an x-ray instead of a CT scan. It is well-known in law enforcement that a CT scan would have shown that he had ingested heroin. Even though he was showing signs of sickness and complaining that he did not feel well, nobody did anything to help him. They never even bothered to take his vitals which could have been more evidence that he had heroin. 

After my son sat in the dispensary for several hours showing these signs and complaining, a nurse in the jail became impatient with my son and told corrections staff to take him to the hole. The hole was the worst place for my son to go. It is well known that if you overdose on heroin you often pass out or look like you’re sleeping. They could have done so many things to save my son. 

First, if they didn’t believe he had heroin, why was he punished? He should have been sent back to his pod where at least other inmates would have noticed something was wrong when he started overdosing.
Second, they could have kept him where he was in the dispensary where at least he would still have been observed and when obvious signs of overdose began, he could have been helped. 

But the best thing they could have done was send my son to the hospital. They completely failed to do anything to help save my son. They wrote him off and basically sent him to die when they sent him to that hole. The jail did not notify me, or any other family members when Dink was found in the cell or after he was pronounced dead. They sent his body to the medical examiner before I even knew my boy had died. Actually, they never called me at all. I found out from a third party. People make mistakes. My son wasn’t a heroin addict. The medical examiner said his body did not show any signs of being a heroin abuser.
​
The jail and medical staff let my son die. 
Now the county has body scanners for incoming inmates. This happened after Dink died. 

My Dink: He loved animals; all kinds from snakes to squirrels and birds. He also loved people. Dink never met a stranger. If you met him, you knew him and he knew you. If you needed help, he’d give you a helping  hand. That boy did more in his 36 years than I have done my whole life. 

I was in a shell of disbelief for a long time, over two year and now I am ready to speak out. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’s child or family member. We will continue to fight at a time when police officers can kill blacks.