When Lamont Jones learns that a childhood friend has been arrested and sent to DCP Lamont does what he can to protect him. But the dangers at the county jail are unexpected - and horrific.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who are the key figures in Lamont's story?
He has deep roots in Harrisburg too, so he's always checking in with family and old friends he's known since childhood. One of those childhood friends was a guy named Jamal Crummel.
Chapter 2: What was life like for Lamont and Jamal during their youth?
Just a fun guy, man. I mean, middle school, we was into dancing. We're just about as old as hip-hop, right? So when the break dancing and the graffiti first came out, you know, this was the stuff that we did. We had basement parties. We would dance. I mean, it was just a fun time.
Those were their teenage years. But then Lamont got arrested for dealing drugs when he was 18. And Jamal ran into legal trouble of his own. They were both in and out of jail, and they lost touch. One of the last times Lamont was at DCP, he was working as a barber.
So I could travel the blocks and go around and cut hair. And one time I came on the medical block.
The medical block, known in DCP as M Block. That was where inmates with special physical and mental needs were housed. M Block was just as dirty as the rest of the jail. But it was a little colder. It often smelled bad. And the noise was relentless.
Chapter 3: What led to Lamont's concern about Jamal's imprisonment?
Somebody could be banging on the door. Hey, man, shut up. Be quiet. He could be having a medical crisis right now.
When Lamont walked onto the block, he saw a familiar face.
And he was back there. And I was like, what the... It was Jamal.
Lamont was horrified to see him there on M Block.
I'd seen the condition that he was in, you know, and I knew something was wrong. The hair wasn't being taken care of. The weight was down. You could just see, like, you know, it just wasn't him.
Lamont didn't know it at the time, but Jamal had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and PTSD. He struggled to get the care he needed. And when he struggled, he often ended up getting arrested. But even though it was tough to see Jamal in such rough shape, Lamont was still grateful to bump into him at DCP.
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Chapter 4: How did Jamal's mental health issues affect his incarceration?
It was always a joy just to see him and talk with him. And he would always bring up something different. Remember this? You know, remember, I'm like, wow, man, this guy is a walking almanac. He never forgot anything. You know, on for on, he could remember everything.
While Lamont would leave DCP behind and build a new life for himself, Jamal was stuck cycling in and out of the jail.
And where does he end up? Dauphin County Prison. Why is he in prison? That's where I say there's a difference between treatment and punishment. You stick him in a place that doesn't have the adequate resources... handle that level of illness.
And Lamont worried that at some point something would go wrong. DCP had a reputation for a reason. People were dying. And Lamont didn't want Jamal to be the next death. From Wondery and PennLive, I'm Joshua Vaughn, and this is Death County, PA.
This is episode three, Hell Froze Over.
Most nights, Lamont would put on the local news while he was winding down. That's what he was doing on a night in September 2021 when a crime segment caught his attention. The night before, a 45-year-old man had been driving his Ford Escape through downtown Harrisburg when he saw a group of six pedestrians crossing the street.
He had allegedly stopped his vehicle, then suddenly slammed the accelerator, zooming his car in the direction of the pedestrians. They all managed to jump out of the way. The pedestrians were state troopers out of uniform. The driver was arrested and charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault. His bail was set at $150,000. The reporter said the man's name. It was Jamal.
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Chapter 5: What are the conditions like in Dauphin County Prison?
That's not him trying to run over people or stuff like that. This had to be a time where he wasn't on his medication.
Jamal's family thought he was probably texting while driving, that he hadn't intentionally tried to hurt anyone regardless of the state he was in. But he was going back to DCP, and Lamont was terrified about what that could mean for his friends. Lamont remembered just how violent things could be inside DCP, especially if an inmate was hard to control.
You had some good officers, and then you had some of the ones that were just horrible. And there was a culture there. If you did something on one shift, the next shift could come in, and it could get physical quick. When I got disrespectful to a guard, they would come in with man beaters.
Those are the gloves, the black gloves they would put on and take us in the gym, and it would get real physical there. They would put hands on us, basically.
And things could get a lot worse than that. Lamont was still reeling from seeing the bruises and cuts on Tyreek's body. He hadn't been able to do anything to protect his cousin back then. Now, maybe he had the opportunity to protect his friend, Jamal. So Lamont jumped into action. He knew the chief of police in Harrisburg from helping former prisoners get jobs after their release.
Now, he gave the chief a call.
Lamont said, hey, you know, he has mental health issues. He may not be on his medication, so just make sure that the prison is aware of that.
Lamont thought the police chief would be able to get his message to leadership at DCP. And, you know, he was like, okay, thanks. Lamont was mostly worried about the corrections officers, about what they could do to Jamal. But it would turn out Jamal's biggest threat wasn't being beaten up. It was being ignored by the people whose help he needed the most.
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Chapter 6: Why is there a lack of adequate mental health care at DCP?
I definitely dealt with Jamal Cromwell many times.
This is a woman I'm calling Samantha. She doesn't want her real name used because she's afraid of retaliation from Dauphin County officials. She was a corrections officer at DCP for nearly 20 years. Jamal was at DCP a lot, sometimes for new criminal charges, sometimes for breaking probation or parole violations. Samantha felt like she got to know him.
We joked around. He always would call me his baby mom and always talked about the sneakers that I used to wear.
But Samantha also saw how erratic Jamal could be. During bad mental health episodes, he needed support that Samantha and the other COs couldn't provide.
His mental health is severely deteriorating, and we are not equipped to handle it. He was on a block where it was a lot of severe mentally ill people that shouldn't be incarcerated there, that should be going to get further medical attention, but have such a long waiting list to get help.
The nearest state mental health facility was a three-hour drive from Harrisburg with a long waiting list, which meant DCP was pretty much the only place Jamal could go. After his arrest in September 2021, he seemed to be struggling even more than usual. Fewer jokes, less sneaker talk.
I had gotten a call from one of my sergeants, and they were very concerned when he had walked the block, and Jamal was not himself. He was just laying on his mattress, and he was just not responding to staff when they were talking to him.
But overnight, Jamal went from listless to amped up. He started yelling and banging on his cell door. Then, at some point, he turned on the metal sink in the corner of his cell and stopped up the train. Soon, water was pouring onto the floor, pulling under the small desk and metal toilet, and spreading out towards the hall.
You want to be like, come on, Jamal, stop. Like, what are you doing?
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Chapter 7: How did the prison staff respond to Jamal's situation?
We saw him come into the booking center, he always kind of sighed because it had potential to be a use of force, only because he was so unpredictable. So you kind of look at it as a challenge to get him processed through the whole intake process or get him from point A to point B without a use of force. You take a deep breath and say, all right, let's get him through this.
But getting through this was going to take a different level of care than Samantha and Thomas could provide. And as Jamal's condition worsened, the medical staff at DCP was going to find itself stretched thin and in short supply. In Death County, PA, Lamont Jones is fighting to uncover the truth about his cousin's death in Dolphin County Prison.
But standing in his way is a reality TV corner and a system built on secrets. If you're captivated by stories of betrayal and cover-ups, you should check out Wondery's podcast, Exposed. This series reveals the horrifying crimes of Dr. Robert Haddon, an Ivy League OBGYN who assaulted hundreds of patients while the system protected him.
From the prestigious halls of Columbia University to the courtrooms where survivors finally got their day in court, this is a story of power, accountability, and the courage it takes to fight back. Follow Exposed on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Exposed exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Nearly everyone recognized DCP was not the right place for Jamal. Lamont Jones knew it. So did Samantha and Thomas, the two corrections officers. And according to Jamal's family, county prosecutors knew it too.
They remembered that at the preliminary hearing on Jamal's aggravated assault charges, all the lawyers seemed to agree that Jamal belonged in a mental health facility. To Jamal's family, it seemed it was only District Attorney Fran Chardo who disagreed. He continued to pursue the case against Jamal for aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and driving under the influence.
And as the months went on, fall became winter. It was getting cold in central Pennsylvania. All the public areas inside DCP were heated, but the individual cells on M Block didn't have heating vents of their own. It was so cold on the blocks that COs like Thomas were issued parkas to wear while they made their rounds. But the inmates had no such luck.
They could buy extra clothing at commissary, socks and thermal shirts. But if they didn't have the money in their accounts, then they just had their regular uniforms, short-sleeved shirts, and pants made out of thin, cotton-like material. Jamal was even worse off.
I had walked back to M Block for a pill call or something to help out, and I noticed he was in his cell on the floor.
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Chapter 8: What was the critical turning point for Jamal at DCP?
Just like calling the police department and saying, well, it's Friday at 8 o'clock at night. We'll have cops back on duty Monday morning. Just hang out there for the weekend. And that's the best analogy I can make with the mental health inside the facilities.
So, after Thomas told the prime care staff that something was wrong with Jamal, he basically just had to hope that a nurse or medical assistant would go and check on him. Clean him up, dry him off, and make sure he wasn't sick.
I would come into work Sunday at 2 o'clock. We needed to go back, take the medical staff with us that we trust, and get him sent to the hospital if he's not already there by the time I come in. I don't care what the prime care provider says, what on-call says, we need to send him out if he's still in as rough shape as he was yesterday.
But the next morning when Thomas came into work, Jamal was in his cell, on the floor, still soaking wet. Nothing had been done. So Thomas cleaned up Jamal himself. Then he called Samantha. She'd known Jamal for a long time. Maybe she'd be able to figure out why Jamal was acting the way he was. Samantha went down to M Block and walked over to the door of Jamal's cell.
He was laying on his mattress right in front of the door. I got down and was talking to him, and he just was not in good shape. Jamal was not himself.
Thomas and Samantha went back to the prime care team. This time, a supervising nurse came down to M Block right away. She was alarmed.
So she called an ambulance. We very carefully got him up, I think in a wheelchair, off his urine and water-soaked floor. He was wearing a full uniform, but the uniform was also saturated, like it was just dripping. At this point, we know he's going out. The ambulance is on the way. And we put him in the shower area where it's off camera where we can get him naked.
And sat him down in a green chair and tried asking him. I said, Jamal, dude, we need to change. You're going out to the hospital to get help. We need to get you out of this soaking wet uniform. I think you'll feel better. You'll warm up. And I asked him, I said, can I help you get undressed? I said, I've known you for a while.
I know this might be awkward, but I need to help you get this uniform off. And he gave me a little head nod.
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