Note from Oakland Rising: Regardless of people’s past choices and lifestyles, it does not give police and prisons the right to kill someone. We acknowledge how framing in the media is complicit in dehumanizing Black, Indigenous, People of Color in order to justify their death caused at the hands of police and prisons.
DUBLIN, Calif. – A 33-year-old person has died at Santa Rita Jail, the fourth person to die in six weeks.
Candice “Cody” Vanburen, 33, suffered a medical emergency, the Alameda County Sheriff said, and died at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley on Feb. 28. A source told KTVU that Vanburen overdosed on an extremely powerful amount of fentanyl.
Several advocacy groups decried the latest death.
“We are heartbroken and enraged to hear of yet another death related to Santa Rita Jail, the deadliest place in Alameda County,” the groups said in a statement. “For years, advocates have called out the level of abuse, neglect, death, and cruel punishment inside Santa Rita Jail. We have stood alongside families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and called for transparency, diversion, and accountability — yet these calls have been met with silence.”
The groups include: The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Oakland Rising, Urban Peace Movement and Human Impact Partners.