A terminally ill homeless man chose to die in jail, Cobb sheriff says

A man detained in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center died Saturday in the hospital from advanced lung cancer he’d been suffering with before his arrest, officials said.

The man, who was registered as a sex offender, did not have an address and would not provide contact information for any of his next of kin, the Cobb sheriff’s office said. Because his family has not been notified of his death, the sheriff’s office did not release his name.

“All signs pointed to this individual being homeless with no access to medical care,” Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens said in a statement. “We believe he wanted to be arrested so he could live his remaining weeks in a more comfortable environment.”

The man was taken into custody on charges that he violated restrictions placed on him as a sex offender, but the sheriff’s office did not provide further details about what led to his arrest.

The man’s condition was discovered during a routine medical screening after he was booked into the detention center. He was held in custody due to his sex offender status and was “routinely” taken to the hospital for cancer treatments, the sheriff’s office said.

“I say often that jails across our metro and the state have become de facto hospitals and mental health facilities,” Owens said. “This detainee’s death is another example of that fact, and we must collectively do more outside of the criminal justice system so that folks don’t intentionally go to jail to receive life-or-death medical treatment.”

Officials did not say when the man was arrested, so it isn’t clear how long he was receiving treatment in custody.

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