BUFFALO, N.Y. — India Cummings died after being transported to Buffalo General Hospital from the Erie County Holding Center, one of 24 deaths connected to the facility in the last few years.

But neither the questions asked by the Erie County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee nor the concerns raised by a recent report from the state Commission of Corrections were addressed by law enforcement officials during a hearing Wednesday.

“The holding center is a place for people who are offenders of the law go and await a trial and await a sentencing,” said April Baskin, Erie County Legislator for District 2. “It is not some place where they should be dying.”

Lawmakers grilled local health and law enforcement leaders about several policies and procedures, as the report on Cummings’ death points the finger at staff for failing to respond to her needs.

The 27-year-old was at the holding center in February 2016. The report says she died at Buffalo General Hospital two weeks later from renal failure.

The Erie County Sheriff fired back at the committee after members criticized the commission for not responding to requests for clarification.

"Why are you, or possibly this committee so willing to accept as true nothing more than the opinion of the commission of corrections when you yourself have already expressed your dissatisfaction with that organization," said Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard. 

Because of pending litigation from the Cummings estate, the hearing had little to do with the specifics of her death, which the report says should have been ruled a homicide. County department heads were advised not to answer any specific question related to the facts of the Cummings case.

Baskin said she understood the legal limitations, but “we were able to point out some areas where we can improve and tighten up on policies and procedures.”

No one from the commission was at hearing.

"I am very disappointed that a lot of the questions were dodged by using the old ‘we have litigation going on,’" said Jerome Wright, an organizer with the Campaign For Alternatives To Isolated Confinement Upstate.

Several community members were on hand. Some agree that the dialog was useful but didn’t go far enough to address concerns raised by the report.

"When you don't have full dialog, when there's no transparency, when people are hiding behind the legalities of things, then what are we really getting at," Wright asked.

Baskin says she'll use the information to develop a reform package “to start to do a better job protecting the basic human rights, human rights that people need to have when they are detained in our local jails.”