The report indicates that the jail houses twice as many inmates than it was designed, which in the early 1990s was 443, and needs 59 additional staff members.
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The current use of force policy does not adequately identify restraint chair use as a use of force, the report said.
The jail generally meets most accreditation standards. But where the jail was found to be non-compliant were on standards related to overcrowding and the inability of the facility to meet space requirements for cell size and recreation areas.
UPDATE @ 8:40 a.m.:
The community committee that has been examining Montgomery County Jail operations for nearly two years today will outline three key areas for county commissioners for improved operations.
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The jail has been the subject of more than a dozen lawsuits, and those concerns and the potential for a federal investigation sparked commissioners to form the committee.
Montgomery County and its insurers have paid a price defending and settling lawsuits related to the jail. Already above $1 million last year, the county and its insurers will pay $3.5 million this year to the family of Robert A. Richardson Sr., who died in 2012 while handcuffed face down in the jail.
“A safe and healthy jail must be everyone’s concern and responsibility,” said the co-chairs, Rabbi Bernard Barsky and Dr. Gary LeRoy.
The Dayton Daily News this morning obtained a copy of the report in advance of the 9:30 a.m. meeting.
It cited three common threads running through the report, “namely the inefficiencies of the jail’s current physical plant, the severe overcrowding of the facility, and the critical understaffing of jail personnel.”
The report said addressing the problems will require “the cooperation of the Board of County Commissioners for direction, allocation of funds, and construction; the Sheriff’s Office to implement substantive policy and oversight changes; but also, the citizens of Montgomery County, who must ultimately underwrite these investments.”
INITIAL REPORT:
A citizen committee that spent nearly two years reviewing Montgomery County Jail operations is expected to present its findings to county commissioners this morning.
The Justice Advisory Committee spent nearly two years reviewing jail operations after several civil rights lawsuits were filed against the county.
The group will present their report during the county commission meeting, which is scheduled for 9:30 Tuesday morning. This news organization will have a reporter at the meeting, and we’ll bring you details about the group’s findings as soon as it’s available.
Early this month, the group approved a draft of the report, which examined 11 topics ranging from the physical facility, to staffing levels, command structure and training, to the use of force, as well as standards of medical and behavioral health care provided in the jail.
The goal of the report is to ensure that jail inmates are treated “in a manner befitting any of our family members or ourselves if we are in that situation,” the Rev. David Fox, a committee member, told this news organization on Feb. 5.
“This document is going to show what we need for our individuals that go into jail and are not guilty of anything other than just being in jail until they are adjudicated inside the court system,” Fox said. “That means that the way they should be treated is humane.”
At least 14 lawsuits alleging the mistreatment of inmates have been filed in recent years, including since March 2017 when the advisory committee was formed. A federal class-action lawsuit filed last July alleged overcrowding, and in December an inmate filed a suit naming as defendants, the county’s board of commissioners, former Sheriff Phil Plummer, as well as the man she claims sexually assaulted her in jail, former corrections officer Franco R. Villella.
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