Video surveillance and sworn statements filed as part of the civil lawsuit revealed that Mitchell was left hanging in her cell for several minutes prior to receiving medical attention. Her mother has called for a criminal investigation into her daughter's death, believing that Mitchell was discriminated against and neglected by corrections officers due to her transgender status.

While she was incarcerated, Mitchell was in and out of solitary confinement and was in confinement for more than two weeks before her suicide. She had attempted suicide just days earlier, while in solitary confinement, and told a corrections officer she was about to hang herself. The officer left her alone while he went to alert others of the threat. In order to disguise this lapse, the officer that had left her alone wrote up a false incident report to avoid discipline. The warden of the prison approved the report, knowing that the report was inaccurate.

In September, the Department of Justice launched a probe of Georgia's prisons focusing on harm against inmates by other prisoners and the targeting of LGBTQ+ inmates for sexual violence by prison staff and other inmates.

Editor's Note: While this case is not directly insurance-related, insurers and counsel should be prepared to handle lawsuits against prisons for LGBTQ+ discrimination. According to the ACLU, due to discrimination in housing, education, employment, and family rejection, 21 percent of transgender women have spent time in jail or prison. Despite this, jails and prisons across the country have failed to meet their obligation to protect trans prisoners from abuse and assault by placing them in unsafe conditions.