Je’vion Benham‘s Family Demands Answers After death in prison
- Prison staff neglected to check on Benham for more than 2 days, leading to his death in solitary confinement.
- Benham was placed with a known white supremacist, creating a foreseeable risk to his safety.
- Systemic problems such as gangs controlling prisons and negligent guards are major problems in Georgia's corrections system.
Prison is a terrible place, not only because it is a place full of potentially dangerous criminals, but because it is a place with potentially dangerous correctional officers and administrative staff who are careless, neglectful, and inept.
BOSSIP has reported on numerous instances of Black men and women who have died inexplicably while in custody recently and unfortunately, another case of inmate death is beginning to gain traction in the news cycle.
According to CBSNewsUbiquitous civil rights attorney Ben Crump is demanding accountability for the death of 21-year-old Je'vion Benham who was found lifeless in a solitary confinement cell at Valdosta State Prison on Christmas Eve 2025.
“The Department of Corrections had a fiduciary and constitutional duty to keep this 21-year-old son safe,” Crump said. “Instead, his body was discovered after being left there for more than two days.”
That is correct. Benham was dead two days before anyone in the prison gave a damn enough to check on his condition, arbitrarily, negligently and inadequately.
The Lowndes County coroner found that Benham had begun to decompose so badly that his face was difficult to recognize. The family's attorney, Liza Park, says Benham personally asked to be placed in solitary confinement because he was concerned about his safety. However, he was placed in a cell with a known white supremacist from the “Ghost Face Gang”. Park says the men were not assigned to the same tier regarding their behavior and should never have been housed together.
“That alone was a big mistake,” Park said, adding that pairing a young black inmate with a known white supremacist gang member posed a “foreseeable” risk.
Benham's death was ruled a homicide, but at this time the white cellmate has not been charged with a crime.
Robin Benham, Je'vion's mother, says she received word that her child had “succumbed to his injuries” after an altercation. After traveling from Iowa to Georgia, she discovered what must be a mother's worst nightmare.
“I had to see that my son had no face,” she said. “We didn't even get a choice. I got ashes. My kids got ashes.”
Unfortunately, Ms. Benham is very familiar with the Georgia prison system because she previously worked with the public defender's office. At the press conference, she spoke directly to the major issues facing the state's Department of Corrections.
The gangs run Georgia prisons,” she said. “They just let the guards get to work.”
Rest in peace, Je'vion Benham. This family deserves justice, there is no denying that Valdosta State Prison failed them.
