It took a little more than a week after his arrest for twenty-two-year-old Shali Tilson to be pronounced dead at the Rockdale County Jail in Conyers, Georgia, about a thirty-minute drive east of Atlanta. The cause of death: dehydration.

“Shali didn’t break any laws. He didn’t hurt anyone. He didn’t steal anything,” says Tynesha, his grieving mother.

Shali was studying criminal justice at Community College of Rhode Island and working at the statehouse. However, after his father suffered a stroke, he returned to his family’s home in Rockdale County in September 2017 to help care for him.