And that amount is likely to increase with six other pending lawsuits against the jail, including one involving Robert Richardson, who died May 19, 2012. The lawsuit alleges several jail employees handcuffed and subdued Richardson on his stomach outside a cell door while he was having a medical emergency.
RELATED: County spending on jail lawsuits tops $1M
County commissioners are expected on Tuesday to approve a $75,000 settlement with Marsha Pate-Strickland. Video from the jail taken in September 2015 shows an officer grabbing Pate-Strickland, then 60, by her left arm, pulling her, spinning her and taking her down to the floor.
The lawsuit filed in Dayton’s U.S. District Court claims a contract nurse at the jail refused to send her to a hospital and that she complained to other jail staff. Pate-Strickland sought medical attention at an area hospital after her release from jail and was diagnosed with a “comminuted right humeral head/neck fracture,” according to the lawsuit.
During the justice committee’s meeting this week , the group continued discussing how jail overcrowding, understaffing and the mental health and drug abuse of inmates might all contribute to worsen jail conditions.
But Rev. David Fox reminded fellow committee members that one overarching issue was responsible for the formation of the group in March: the county’s desire to head off a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation.
RELATED: Montgomery County creates jail oversight committee
“What got us here was civil rights issues; not opioid issues, not mental health issues, not all the rest of the issues,” he said. “What got us here was a person in a chair being pepper sprayed. What got us here was people being accused of killing an inmate. What got us here was all those kinds of things.”
Amber Swink, who was pepper sprayed by a corrections officer while strapped to a restraint chair, was the first of four inmates to settle lawsuits with the county since August.
RELATED: County reaches $375K settlement with pepper-sprayed inmate
Montgomery County Jail book-ins number about 26,000 annually. The jail has a capacity of 914 beds, of which approximately 843 are occupied on any given day. A state inspection of the jail in 2016 shows the maximum recommended capacity based on living space and other factors should be no more than 443 inmates.
Joe Spitler, Montgomery County’s criminal justice director, said about a dozen firms attended a mandatory pre-proposal meeting in October. It’s unclear how much the county may be asked to spend on the report until the sealed bids are opened, he said.
MORE: Are black female inmates given smaller cells at county jail?
“Once the vendor is identified, then the negotiations start with the committee on points – what you want them to look at, what you don’t want them to look at, what you need them to look at, the financial consideration,” he said.
The Justice Committee will select the winning proposal, which then must be reviewed by the county administrator and other county offices to find a funding source before any final contract is voted on by the county commission, likely sometime in January, Spitler said.
Montgomery County Jail lawsuit settlements
Four lawsuits of at least 10 cases filed against Montgomery County Jail staff have been settled out of court.
Amber Swink: $375,000, August 2017
Darryl Wallace: $58,000, November 2017
Emily Evans: $380,000, November 2017
Marsha Pate-Strickland: $75,000, November 2017
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