Parents are asking the city of Jacksonville to permanently change the way they handle inmates in the Duval County Jail after their son was raped in a cell.

The parent's story involves their son, Mark Baker, who can no longer speak for himself. He died in August 2011, unrelated to his jail experience.

"I feel devastated. We loved Mark very much," said Kathleen, Baker's mother.

Kathleen and her husband Martin live in Maryland, but they're trying to change things in Jacksonville.

Their son, who was arrested in March 2010 for trespassing, ended up the victim of a sexual predator.

Those sexual assaults happened repeatedly in the jail cell, and Baker's mom said it broke him.

"They found this man homosexually molesting Mark, and he cries, 'I want mommy and daddy,'" said Kathleen. "I don't know anything more gut-wrenching than that, reduced to, 'I want my mommy and daddy.' Cruel and unusual punishment meted out to him."

Joseph Pye (picture, right) is now serving 15 years in prison, convicted of the rape.

Baker and Pye were viewed as suicide threats, so they were in the same cell, stripped naked, even though Pye was there on a sex charge, and Baker was arrested for a misdemeanor.

"The sense of devastation, very great," said Kathleen. "We felt the response at the time was wholly inadequate."

Channel 4 Crime Analyst Ken Jefferson asked the sheriff's office to explain the situation to him, but they referred Jefferson to Jon R. Phillips.

Phillips is a City of Jacksonville attorney. He said the general policy is not to comment on pending or threatened litigation, and that's how the city views this letter, sent by Martin Baker to the mayor's office.

The letter asks for "financial reparations that would make the City decide it would never happen again."

Jefferson explains that detainees suspected of harming themselves are put in a jail cell, without any clothing and with only a heavy blanket. Jefferson also points out that a guard should always be nearby and monitoring each cell every 15 minutes.

"There's a lot of explaining to be done: Why there wasn't anyone to try to protect this individual? Did he scream, yell out, seek help? Were the officers on the post at the time?" asks Jefferson.

Baker's parents told Jefferson whatever the policies are for the jail, and specifically the suicide prevention dorm, those policies failed their son.

"It's an outrage. Any type of human dignity for a 24-year-old young man to be subjected to that," said Martin.

Last Thursday, Jefferson asked for JSO to provide a copy of the jail's Self Harm Prevention Directive.

A police spokesperson said "Unfortunately, reviews of the written directives are typically a lengthy process."

There is also no word on a response from the Mayor to Mr. Baker's letter.