CLEVELAND, Ohio -- I recall Sean Levert whenever I think about Cuyahoga County’s disaster of a jail system. Hours before dying a horrible death in 2008, Sean, the son of Rhythm and Blues legend Eddie Levert, sung for a fellow jail inmate who requested a song.

Levert obliged with Living for the City, a classic Stevie Wonder ballet about a nightmare of homelessness, desperation, and incarceration.

The song was hauntingly appropriate. Soon after performing for the audience of one, Levert, 39, died. He was the victim of a negligent county jail that continues to have abysmal policies regarding the medical care and humane supervision of inmates.

Levert was denied Xanax, a mood-stabilizing medication, which he apparently had the foresight to request when he began to serve a sentence for non-child support payment. When denied access to his prescribed medication, he experienced panic attacks and hallucinations. He reportedly saw invisible attackers and began to loudly forecast his own death. He was isolated and placed in a restraint chair.

When his jailers realized he was dying, it was too late. As they raced him to St. Vincent Charity Hospital, his heart stopped beating and he could not be resuscitated. Then-County Coroner Frank Miller ruled Levert’s death resulted from multiple health issues, including Xanax withdrawal. Inexcusable neglect is a lot closer to the truth.

Ten years later, little has changed. Inmates are still dying at the Cuyahoga County Jail at a staggering rate. Six inmates have died at the downtown jail since June (a seventh inmate died at the county-run jail in Euclid). The downtown jail – Ohio’s second largest – doesn’t seem to be safe.

Now, it appears that we’re about to embark down an expensive path of forced change. A November report by the U.S. Marshall Service concluded what has long been known. The jail is an overcrowded, dangerous, and an unhealthy place. The running of the place affects us all. The jail puts taxpayers on the hook for potential civil rights violations, such as the $4 million dollars settlement paid out to the estate of Levert.

The latest findings by the Marshall Service may be the impetus for desperately needed change. Maybe not. This much is clear: If Cuyahoga County continues to prove incapable of operating a safe and humane system of incarceration, outside help (read Federal) will not only be needed – it will likely be forced.

Another famous entertainer, Philadelphia rapper Meek Mills has recently emerged as an unlikely voice for national jail and sentencing reform. Earlier this year, Mills served five months for a probation violation stemming from a 2008 gun and drug possession case. His probation violation was related to a charge of recklessly driving a motorcycle.

In a New York times opinion column published last month, he wrote:

“I know I’m the exception to the rule — a lucky one. It’s clearer than ever that a disproportionate number of men and women of color are treated unfairly by a broken criminal justice system. The system causes a vicious cycle, feeding upon itself — sons and daughters grow up with their parents in and out of prison, and then become far more likely to become tied up in the arrest-jail-probation cycle. This is bad for families and our society as a whole.”

Mills is correct. His fame and connections are what separate him from the masses. New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft and Philadelphia 76ers owner Robert Rubin are two of the influential people who lobbied against what they say was Mills’ unfair incarceration for “popping a wheelie” on a motorcycle.

Sean Levert took most of his final breaths while fastened to a chain in the county jail ten years ago. Virtually nothing has changed for the better. The Cuyahoga County Jail remains as dangerous and haphazard as some of Cleveland’s most unforgiving streets.