On December 11, 2002, my 24 year old son, Givon Pendleton, was brutally stabbed nine times in the District of Columbia Jail. As he lay dying right there in that jail, no corrections officers were there to intervene or to help. My son Givon was being held at the jail on a pretrial status for non-violent charges, but his attacker, another inmate, was awaiting trial on two first-degree murder charges. Not long before attacking my son, he and his gang had beaten another prisoner as well. That horrible day will be with me forever.

Today, my tears still flow, and my questions still go unanswered. How could something so devastating happen in a supposedly secured and monitored environment? Where were the correctional officers when my son was struggling for his life? Where were the correctional officers as he lay bleeding to death? How did the knife get into the jail? Why has the knife never been found? Why weren't there any security cameras to observe the area where my son was killed?

The sad but true fact is that two days after my son's death, another inmate was severely stabbed. The day after that, still another inmate was fatally stabbed. In December 2003, four inmates were shot with a handgun that was smuggled into the supposedly weapons-free, maximum-security cell block. Not one correctional officer saw it happen.…

I have been asked, "What do you want out of all of this?" I reply, none of this will bring my son back, it won't dry my tears, it won't fill the emptiness in my heart, it won't stop my longing to hear his voice or see his smile, but maybe, just maybe, it may keep another mother from feeling the pain and loss of her child.

Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission