Almost two years after his death, an inmate's family seeks accountability

Asaiah Washington died in Sacramento County Jail on July 26, 2024, and nearly two years later, his family is still calling to hold the Sacramento County Sheriff’s office accountable for his death.

On Thursday, his family and supporters gathered outside the Sacramento County Jail on what would have been Washington’s 42nd birthday. His wife Tonette Washington spoke at the rally, and said she couldn’t believe the call she received from the Sacramento County Coroner’s office.

“He’s the type of person that is not supposed to be gone. He’s the type of person that’ll go in the store and say, ‘Why are you selling water? It should be free.’” Washington said. “I just talked to him 10:07 a.m., and he died 11:30 a.m., within an hour.”

Washington said that her husband struggled for a long time with his mental health, and that she believes he wasn’t being provided with his medication. She said that when he collected his property from the jail, Washington found notes kept by her husband detailing his repeated requests for treatment.

“I’m just reading this, and it’s just giving me chills,” Washington said. “He was basically begging for his medication.”

Tonette Washington said she was worried about inmates who remain in Sacramento County Jail, and that she doesn’t believe what happened to her husband is an isolated incident. Other advocates and supporters from groups like the Anti-Police Terror Project and Decarcerate Sacramento held signs and spoke at the rally.

Christopher-Camilo Carbajal-Carbajal, an organizer with Decarcerate Sacramento, said that there has been a consistent problem with people dying in Sacramento County Jail.

“There’s not enough resources for mental health support, medical support,” Carbajal-Carbajal said. “We also know that sheriffs, from what people have told us, the sheriff deputies have been gatekeepers to medical care.”

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the rally or calls for accountability in the jail system.

Keyan Bliss (right), an organizer with the Anti-Police Terror Project reads the names of inmates who have died in Sacramento County Jail since 2018, in front of Tonette Washington(left), her family and the rally of advocates on May 28, 2026.Ruth Finch/CapRadio

Since January 2021, at least 41 people have died in Sacramento County Jail, according to reporting by the Sacramento Bee. In 2024, a lawsuit was filed against Sacramento County seeking damages for one detainee’s family after he died of septic shock and kidney failure, even though according to the lawsuit, he repeatedly requested and was denied medical assistance.

AJ Albano, another organizer with Decarcerate Sacramento, said that a number of the deaths in the jail have been drug-related.

“At least a dozen of them were related to drug overdose, like Asaiah,” Albano said. “That happens because of negligence and neglect of the staff, failure to respond to drug overdoses when they happen, and also failure to prevent drugs from getting into the jail.”

Tonette Washington said she has concerns with how an institution like the county jail could allow something like what happened to her husband to happen within its walls.

“Now we are left trying to understand how a vulnerable human being under institutional supervision lost his life,” Washington said. “Families are not seeking accountability because they hate institutions. Families seek accountability because they love the person they lost.”

On July 30th, 2025 Washington filed a lawsuit regarding the death of her husband against the County of Sacramento. Albano said that families can sometimes only find accountability in court.

“The sheriff has no structured accountability at all,” Albano said. “The only way that there is accountability is through lawsuits.”