VALDOSTA — Georgia’s prison system has reached a multi-million dollar settlement in a lawsuit filed by the parents of a Valdosta State Prison inmate who died of suicide in 2017.

Sheba Maree and Jeff Spiva, the parents of the inmate who identified as Jenna Mitchell, a female, but is referred to as Caleb Mitchell, a male, throughout the suit, will receive $2.2 million from the Georgia Department of Corrections, said David Shanies, the family’s New York-based lawyer.

Papers dismissing the lawsuit were filed in federal court Tuesday.

The settlement comes during an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into violence and civil rights violations in the Georgia Department of Corrections and its prisons, including Valdosta State Prison.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in March 2019, Maree and Spiva claim their child had sent Maree a letter in late 2017 in which she threatened to kill herself.

Maree called the prison to have someone put Mitchell on suicide watch but was told Mitchell was already under medical supervision, having already tried to kill herself.

On Dec. 4, 2017, Mitchell was in solitary confinement, having been told she was being moved to a space for transgender inmates, the lawsuit said. She had been medically approved for sexual reassignment surgery.

Mitchell told a guard she was going to hang herself; the guard left to tell others about the threat rather than enter the cell to stop Mitchell, the parents claim in the suit. Before the guard could return, Mitchell hanged herself.

Mitchell spent two days in a coma in the hospital before dying Dec. 6.

The lawsuit accused the guard’s supervisor of falsifying a report on the death to protect prison staff. Both the guard, the supervisor and the former warden were listed as defendants.

The lawsuit said the defendants were guilty of “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs” because Mitchell’s history of suicide attempts was known to prison officials.

The defendants were also accused in the lawsuit of denying the family access to the courts via “falsification of records by defendants in order to conceal wrongdoing.”

The corrections department referred all comment to the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which has not yet responded to a request for comments.

CNN reported that Mitchell identified as Jenna; court and prison records obtained by The Valdosta Daily Times referred to Mitchell as a male with the given name Caleb.

Meanwhile, the DOJ is reviewing whether Georgia’s 35 Georgia Department of Corrections facilities provide inmates reasonable protection from physical harm at the hands of other prisoners. The department also will continue its existing investigation into whether Georgia provides lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex prisoners reasonable protection from sexual abuse by other prisoners and by staff, a statement from the Department of Justice said.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.