Sarah Lee Circle Bear was a 25-year old Native American mother who died while in custody at the Brown County Jail in Aberdeen, South Dakota. On July 3rd, Circle Bear was arrested following a traffic accident and placed in Roberts County Jail. Later, she was moved to Brown County. Throughout her stay in jail, Circle Bear demonstrated signs of detrimental physical health as she was shuffled between jail cells. No one really bothered to help her. On July 5th, she was found unresponsive in her jail cell.
Many news outlets responded to Circle Bear’s case:
Sarah Lee Circle Bear Was Pregnant When She Died in Police Custody, Family Says
Authorities End Investigation Into Death of Sarah Lee Circle Bear
Autopsy: Sarah Lee Circle Bear Died of Meth Overdose Two Days After Arrest
Extraterritorial Killings: The weaponisation of bodies (Australia)
This case study was authored by Beatriz Esmeralda Maldonado of the United States hub of the Deathscapes project. The supervising assistance was provided by Professor Jonathan Xavier Inda.
To cite this research: Maldonado, Beatriz Esmeralda. ‘”I’m Not Faking!”: Abandoned to Death in a Prison Cell’. Deathscapes: Mapping Race and Violence in Settler States, 2019, https://www.deathscapes.org/case-studies/im-not-faking-abandoned-to-death-in-a-prison-cell-in-progress/?preview_id=19222&preview_nonce=19dcac3e7b&_thumbnail_id=19223&preview=true
Corresponding author: bmaldon2@illinois.edu
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