The Montgomery County Jail Coalition has repeatedly called for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to investigate seven local jail deaths last year.
It wasn’t until July 3 that the coalition received a letter from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction highlighting the results of its investigation from late 2023.
According to the letter, the state investigated the Montgomery County Jail at the end of last year in response to deaths there.
As a result, the jail was found noncompliant with security observation checks, pre-screens, and intoxication and detox policies and protocols.
Now, the jail is making changes including reprogramming its electronic health records, offering comfort medications as needed, updating its process for treating people with medications for opioid use disorder and creating a detox pod.
The jail is also educating its staff on its electronic health record system updates and changes to the detoxification process.
Custody-line staff and nurses are also being trained on how how to identify and respond to signs of withdrawal, how to recognize changes in an incarcerated person's condition, and when to contact medical staff or an advanced level practitioner.
Sheriff's Office responds
The sheriff's office declined an interview with WYSO but released the following official statement from Chief Deputy Matt Haines.
"As the letter states, we notified BAD (the Bureau of Adult of Detention) immediately and our correctional staff and medical provider worked with BAD to comprehensively review each incident and adopted any suggestions that they provided. Our correctional staff and medical provider immediately made changes where needed and we maintain compliance not only with state standards but are also one of very few local jails in the state to maintain accreditation with both the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare."
In that same statement, Haines addressed the concerns surrounding mental health and addiction among inmates.
"A large portion of our jail population are drug dependent, have severe mental health issues, and suffer from chronic medical conditions and we are constantly adapting to recognize and treat new drugs of abuse that are smuggled into our community that has for many years been a test market for foreign drug cartels,” he said.
Continued advocacy from coalition
An organizer with the Montgomery County Jail Coalition, Bobby Beebe, said these changes are a step in the right direction, but the coalition is still fighting for people struggling with addiction or mental health crises to be sent to a more suitable rehab facility.
“At the end of the day, what we want to see is, should a person like this be in jail? A lot of that relies on whether or not the people who are working in that jail have the ability to care for that person, to treat that person with dignity, and to recognize, this is a medical issue that requires medical attention,” he said.
Beebe said he is disappointed by the lack of transparency and accountability when it comes to the state investigation and its results.
"We were pretty bummed that it's the first we were hearing of it," he said. "And at no point [did] the county commissioners, the sheriff or anyone to tell us "there has been an investigation and here are the things they found, and this is how we're fixing them,'"
According to Beebe, the coalition has gone to the commission on five different occasions following the 2023 investigation but weren’t informed of its occurrence until July 2024.
Call for change
"We will continue to advocate that the living conditions and the medical services available to people in the jail are adequate and representative of the dignity of the people who are detained there."
The initial push for an investigation was heightened by the death of a 19-year-old autistic man, Isaiah Trammell.
Trammell's story gained even more traction after the Columbus Dispatch released an investigative piece on his death and conditions at the jail.
In the story released by the Dispatch, Sheriff Rob Streck told the Columbus Dispatch that Trammell shouldn’t have been in jail, given his mental health issues.
Trammell died after being in a coma for three days from hitting his head against the walls of his cell. According to his mother, His mother told the Dispatch that the action of hitting his head was an example of him stimming.
Stimming is self-stimulating or soothing behavior which presents as the repetition of physical movements, sounds, words, or other behaviors.
Individuals with autism often exhibit these behaviors when they are trying to manage their emotions in a stressful or over-stimulating experience.
Footage released from from the jail obtained by the Columbus Dispatch shows Trammell repeatedly asked for his legal right to a call or for medications to sooth him while he was at the jail.
"You can go look at the quotes in some of that reporting and see the way that some of the folks in the jail were talking to Isaiah Trammell," Beebe said. "A person struggling with a disability in an extremely stressful situation. And it makes your stomach sink to see even how he's being talked to."
Staff at the jail eventually strapped Trammell down and photographed the hematoma that had formed on his head as he expressed he was in pain.
Ten hours after arriving at the jail he was transported to the hospital due to his injuries. He remained unconscious until his death three days later which the coroner ruled a suicide.
Continued advocacy
According to Beebe, the coalition is still fighting for anyone struggling with mental health issues or addiction when it comes to incarceration at an institution like the Montgomery County Jail.
"We will continue to advocate that the living conditions and the medical services available to people in the jail are adequate and representative of the dignity of the people who are detained there," he said. "I think it's also time for us to start talking with judges and talking with local police organizations and talking with the county prosecutor to understand the mechanisms that end up [putting] people in jail in the first place and how how we can reduce that number."
