Belinda Maley will never see her son again.

Her son, Matthew, had been in trouble and was at the Chatham County Detention Center.

It may break a mother’s heart to have to visit her child who is jailed but she loves him, misses him and looks forward to that day he can finally come home.

She most likely also looks forward to every phone call, hearing his voice, knowing that despite his circumstances he is doing as well as he possibly could be.

But that is not the phone call Belinda received.

Matthew was not doing well.

In fact, Matthew thought he was dying.

He was right.

He was dying.

That last phone call was haunting.

“I need to get to a hospital … I’ve been coughing up blood. … My feet are swollen … I’m gonna die in here,” Matthew told his mother on their last recorded jail phone call.

Matthew Loflin died in 2014 about three months after he was brought to the detention center in Savannah.

It was heart failure.

His mother said jailers refused to take him to a hospital for medical care after weeks of suffering from cardiomyopathy.

You often hear people say things such as “do the crime, do the time,” but regardless of how you feel about crime and punishment, the “time” should not mean “time to die.”

Belinda Maley is not alone. Countless mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, husbands, wives also sons and daughters will never see their loved ones again, never give them a hug, say “I love you” or share a tender moment because the person they loved died behind bars, having never received a death sentence.

Those deaths occur for a myriad of reasons. Some have serious health issues when they are arrested. Some develop health issues while in jail. Some have drug addictions. Some take their own lives. Some are the victims of violence whether by fellow inmates or those entrusted with guarding and protecting them.

Regardless of the reasons, the pain is nonetheless real for Belinda Maley and so many others just like her. They all have a right to know.

They have right to know the conditions at the jail or prison. They have a right to know the physical condition of their loved one. They have a right to know what resources are available. They have a right to know when they are in crisis. The have the right to know the full, complete and unvarnished track record of the jail or prison. They have the right to know how many people have died there in the past.

And, they most certainly have the right to know exactly when, where, why and how their son, daughter, husband, wife, grandchild, father or mother died when such tragedy does occur.

If prisons are able to continue a cloak of secrecy around just about everything that happens inside prison walls, bad things will continue to happen — bad things like the death of Belinda’s son, Matthew.

No mother should ever have to hear, Mom, I’m going to die in here.

Jim Zachary is the editor of The Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI’s director of newsroom training and development and president emeritus of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.