TAMPA, Fla. — Starleater Simmons spends most of her time at home in her bedroom.
On her dresser, she keeps a bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo, a hairbrush, and flip-flops. The items may not seem like much. But to Simmons, they represent the final physical threads connecting her to her son.
“They sent all his stuff to me," Simmons said, holding her son's hairbrush. “I just touch it and smell it sometimes to, you know, be near my baby."
"They" — is Suwanee Correctional Institution, where Simmons' firstborn, Jamaltre, died Dec. 6, 2021 while serving a 15-year prison sentence for burglary. He was 34 years old.
In her bedroom, she keeps her son's ashes. That's also where she received the news of a phone call from the Department of Corrections.
“I was asleep," she said. "My daughter run in the house and say, ‘Mommy, wake up.’ Jamaltrae had died."
For more than a year now, Simmons has repeated the same question to anyone who will listen in her search for answers:
"What happened?"
Jamaltre's tentative release date was scheduled for July 15, 2025. He was in prison 11 years before he died, and Simmons said she and her son kept in touch "all the way." All the way up until eight days before he died.
“He was telling me he was sick," Simmons said.
She said she called Suwanee C.I. multiple times, day after day. She said she didn't get answers from the chaplain and a correctional officer she spoke to. So she asked to speak to the warden or someone even higher up.
“My child died in y'all’s facility. I deserve to speak to somebody," she told them over the phone.
Each person who got on the line said they didn't know what happened.
During the I-Team's first interview with Simmons in April 2022, four months after her son died, Simmons said no one had gotten back to her.
"To them, he’s gone. To them, they feel there’s nothing else for them to do because he’s no longer here," she said. "I’m his mother. And my child was important to me. And what he had going on, y’all couldn’t handle, so somebody needs to answer to me. I got a lot of questions and I need a lot of answers."
I-Team Series | Crisis in Corrections
In her bedroom, paperwork and letters sprawled across her bed, Simmons told the I-Team she's tried to piece together a timeline to find answers.
“The only answers I got on the black and white is that his appendix ruptured," she said.
The medical examiner's report listed the cause of death as “Peritonitis due to acute appendicitis with rupture of appendix.”
Simmons said her son had been asking for medical treatment. She learned that when another inmate's mother called her.
Simmons shared a recording of the call from December 2021, with permission from the woman who asked the I-Team not to use her name out of fear for her incarcerated son's safety.
“I know I told you that another inmate was screaming for four days for medical attention. And they told him that no, you’re a security risk, we can’t let you leave your cell," the mother said in the call to Simmons. "And their thing is, 'Oh, we don’t have enough medical staff — I asked [the living inmate] about that again. And he said, ‘That was Tre,’ It broke my heart.”
Simmons: “That was who?”
Other inmate's mother: “That was your son. Shortly before he passed away.”
She went on to tell Simmons, according to her son, "He did nothing but cry and beg for help to get him out of the cell and to the sick bay.”
Later in the call, she said, “They flat-out denied your son medical treatment."
"Something is seriously wrong"
Jamaltre was one of 441 inmates who died in a Florida state prison in 2021.
“Far too many deaths are occurring inside of our facilities," State Rep. Dianne Hart of Tampa told the I-Team. “Something’s wrong. Something is seriously wrong.”
Hart received letters from prisoners and family members daily, with many wanting answers after a loved one dies. She said when she called the Department of Corrections or the prison directly, she was told it was under investigation and can't be discussed. Investigations can — and do — go on for years, in some cases.
“We want to assure people that we’re watching and we’re paying attention," Hart said.
Hart made that known by calling on family members to join her in Tallahassee in early March. Simmons was one of dozens of family members who made the trip.
“My son, his voice needs to be heard," Simmons said.
Simmons joined others, holding pictures of their loved ones and sharing their stories.
“It is inconceivable that my son’s investigation status is still yet categorized as ‘open’ with no updates from FDLE or the inspector general," mother Martha Levarity, who retired from the Department of Corrections, said at the news conference in the state capitol.
October will mark two years since her 37-year-old son, Joecephus LaFleur, died in prison. His death was ruled an accident.
"Not only are we killing people, we’re not even helping them medically when they’re sick," Hart said.
FDC closed Jamaltre's death investigation last year. But more than 100 other cases from 2021, the same year he died, remain open. These include "manner of deaths" listed as natural, accident, suicide and homicide.
"We're left with a lot of questions"
Elizabeth Buchanan works with families whose loved ones died in Florida prisons.
Looking at the running list of inmates who have died, she said, "We're left with a lot of questions."
"It's important to note that while the investigations are open, that means that families can never get the investigation files. They can never actually get answers," Buchanan told the I-Team.
"You will see deaths occurring three, four years ago that still have open investigations," Buchanan said.
From 2017 - 2021, more than 200 death investigations remain open, including "open-inactive" investigations.
Buchanan said with one in four Americans incarcerated at some point in their lives, people should care about this issue.
"This could happen to anybody's loved one, their father, daughter, wife," said Buchanan. "So we really need to be aware that people deserve prison if they're convicted of a crime, but a prison sentence should not result in a death sentence unless a jury or a judge has decided that."
The I-Team requested an interview with Secretary Ricky Dixon for this story, giving him a week to make himself available at any time, any day. The I-Team was told he is "not available for an interview at this time." After asking when he would be available and if he grants interviews with other corrections employees, the I-Team has yet to hear back.
This is the I-Team's latest request after more than 20 emails and numerous phone calls over the past year as part of the ongoing series, Crisis in Corrections, asking for an interview with Dixon. The department originally assured us it was working to schedule an interview before changing its mind toward the end of last year without explanation.
An interview would give Dixon the opportunity to answer the I-Team's questions and concerns on behalf of families and taxpayers, who pay his $184,415.14 salaryand the millions in tax dollars that go toward funding the third largest prison system in the country.
The I-Team's request for an interview remains open.
