michael harper, the lawyer for lashawn thompson's family.ashawn thompson's family, sister shenita thompson speaking to us from winterhaven, florida, and his brother brad, speaking to us from montgomery, alabama. our condolences to you both. next up, as a new study finds poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the united states, we speak to the pulitzer prize-winning writer matthew desmond, his new book "poverty, by america." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: "say a little prayer" by gregg brown. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. republican house speaker kevin mccarthy has proposed increasing the debt ceiling for a year in exchange for sweeping budget cuts that would likely result in less federal money for housing, education, health care, and the environment. mccarthy also pushed for tougher work requirements for recipients of snap, the supplemental nutrition assistance program. and to expand domestic mining and fossil fuel production. mccarthy outlined his plan i

here's what he had to, say michael harper, the family attorney, about the discovery of thompson's body. he was found in a deplorable, filthy jail cell. body was beaten and infested by insects and bugs, little deplorable situation. still, he was in was not fit for a disease animal. i have photographs here. and i want you guys to take a look at this. of the sale that he was housed in this is inexcusable. and it's deplorable. fried. we did hear back from the fulton county sheriff's office who say that they cannot by law speak about thompson's health conditions or what decisions he made regarding his right to accept or to refuse medical care. we do have this statement from the sheriff, the sheriff's office that reads without making any explicit statements about mr thompson's health. it is fair to say that this is one of the many cases that illustrate the desperate need for expanded and better mental health services. this is precisely why hi. sheriff labadie continues to call building a new 14 county jail and criminal justice complex. it's also very important to mention here that based on d

we heard a little bit more about this from the family attorney michael harper and from the family, who spoke at a press conference this past week, and they said that despite this death happening in september of last year, it took them this long to get documents and piece together. what happened now, they said that thompson was in jail in custody for misdemeanor assault charge and that he was in this psychiatric wing due to some mental health issues, and he had only been there for three months . they are blaming unsanitary conditions and then complications from insect bites for his death, so they're making three big demands here. first they want to criminal investigation into thompson's death. they want the fulton county jail too close and they want a new one to be built in its place. listen now to thompson's own brother. what he had to say. it was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. nobody should see that. but the first thing that entered my mind was emmett till i thought about emmett to comparing those photos. it was heartbreaking, inexcusable death. it is an outrag

a little bit more from the family family of lashawn thompson and from their family attorney, michael harper , who says that thompson was in jail in custody for just three months before his death, held there in custody on misdemeanor assault charges. they are blaming the family's blaming and sanitary conditions at the jail and also complications from insect bites for thompson's death. now they are demanding three things at large, and those things are for a criminal investigation to be placed and done into thompson's death, also for the current jail fulton county jail atlanta is in fulton county for that jail to be closed and for a new one to be built in its place here what the family had to say. it's an inexcusable death. it is an outrage, and we call them all the citizens of 14 county to demand better and to demand a new jail. it was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. nobody should see that. but the first thing that entered my mind was emmett till i thought about emmett to comparing those photos. it was heartbreaking without making any explicit statements about mr thomps

you know, attorney michael harper and out we are focused on making sure that they can't sweep this underhe rug. this happened in september, and it wasn't until these pictures were released that is finally getting attention. his family has been crying out for help us to what happened. i mean, he had 1000. bedbug bites over his body. he had bedbugs in his mouth and his nose and his eyes and his ears. i mean, this is a person who has a mental health issue and not a hardened criminal and the thanks , tyne county jail officials and the medical examiner trying to say it's undetermined. what killed him where we can just see from the pictures were killed them, but thank god colin kaepernick foundation is going to pay for the family to get an independent autopsy. hopefully in the next week or two gm, we would be able to tell the world what was the cause of death of the sean thompson, this man who died a horrible death in the psychiatric war of the atlanta fulton county jail, and the inmates say he was calling out for help, but nobody paid attention to him because, as the inmates said, they said,

a little bit more from the family family of lashawn thompson and from their family attorney, michael harper who says that thompson was in jail in custody for just three months before his death, held there in custody on misdemeanor assault charges. they are blaming the family's blaming and sanitary conditions at the jail and also complications from insect bites for thompson's death. now they are demanding three things at large, and those things are for a criminal investigation to be place and done into thompson's death, also for the current jail , fulton county jail atlanta is in fulton county for that jail to be closed and for a new one to be built in its place here what the family had to say. it's an inexcusable death. it is an outrage, and we call them all the citizens of fulton county to demand better and to demand a new jail. it was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. nobody should see that. but the first thing that entered my mind was emmett till i thought about emmett to comparing those photos. it was heartbreaking. we did reach out to the fulton county sheriff's of