Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said the oversight committee has no real power and “not a lot has been accomplished,” according to a deposition he gave in one of the 10 recent federal civil rights lawsuits against Montgomery County Jail staff. Plummer noted he and jail staff have taken action on their own to improve conditions.
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The allegations of mistreatment against inmates range from the the pepper spraying of Amber Swink to the head/neck fracture of Marsha Pate-Strickland. Both those 2015 incidents were settled last year.
Another lawsuit on behalf of Robert Richardson, who died May 19, 2012, alleges several jail employees handcuffed and subdued the inmate on his stomach outside a cell door while he was having a medical emergency.
On Tuesday, one of the committee’s co-chairmen defended work of the group that selected a consultant the county will pay $100,245 to perform a study of the jail facility and operations.
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“This is a major hurdle that we are getting past,” said Dr. Gary LeRoy. “The work going forward is very critical, and I welcome community members asking those hard questions about what we’re doing.”
“In order to do it correctly, we have to take time to educate ourselves and learn what it is we need to do,” said LeRoy. “It’s a two-year project, and we’ve been pacing ourselves trying to make sure we get all the facts right.”
The amount of taxpayer money spent defending and settling the cases of alleged mistreatment in the jail soared above $1 million last year when county commissioners approved a fourth settlement: a $380,000 payout to Emily Evans.
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Then 27, Evans was brought to the jail in 2014 on a drunk driving charge. The lawsuit claimed Evans was threatened by a deputy who had a Taser pointed at her and was then slammed to the floor by a sergeant, causing facial fractures.
“All of this intended to try to move away from where we’ve been,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley. “We’ve seen a significant number of lawsuits that have been filed in the jail, which has cost a significant amount of money.”
In addition to the lawsuits already filed, another may be filed soon, according to Doug Brannon, an attorney representing the family of a woman found dead in her cell. Sasha Garvin died last May, the month the justice committee met for the first time.
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Commissioners approved the professional jail consultant to help the committee members identify and report back not just shortcomings of the building, but also best practices that could eventually change procedures and policies, including how and when to use force, Foley said.
“When they make recommendations back to us about what that jail needs in order to be safe for inmates and safe for staff, I think the recommendations are going to be pretty wide. They are going to hit all of those areas,” Foley said.
The committee — formed after calls for a federal civil rights investigation into the jail — was not assembled to adjudicate the claims of mistreatment, but to help prevent mistreatment, LeRoy said.
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“We want to reduce behavioral problems in our jail system, drug overdoses, medical health problems and decrease the population in our jail system,” LeRoy said. “And we want no civil rights violations – not less.”
According to the county’s contract with CGL, the consultants will also look the staffing level of corrections officers, their training and whether training requirements are adequately enforced.
In a March 14 deposition in the lawsuit brought by Joseph Guglielmo — a homeless vet who claims he had his head slammed into a concrete wall by a deputy — Plummer said he’s a non-voting member and helped pick the committee.
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When asked what authority the committee has, Plummer answered: “Really none. The jail is under my sole authority, so they’re going to make recommendations and, you know, we’re hoping they come up with some resources that are desperately needed in there.”
Asked about the role of the hired consultant, Plummer said he isn’t sure if the consultant will look at uses of force within the jail.
“I’m not really sure what they’re looking at,” the sheriff said in the deposition. “They’re looking for bricks and mortars. They’re looking at some of the buckets for substance abuse and mental illness in there.”
“It’s not a critical committee as far as operations go, but it’s a committee looking at the entire outdated, antiquated facility,” he said. “Like I mentioned earlier, we don’t have the resources to handle the population we have to deal with.”
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Plummer said in the deposition that the consultant will not be investigating the jail, just reviewing its needs.
“We have made some internal changes to help with the difficult population,” Plummer said when he was reached Tuesday.
A number of initiatives — including the addition of a treatment coordinator, peer support counselors and the implementation of a medication assisted treatment program — have been implemented, he said.
CASES SETTLED
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
Marsha Pate-Strickland: $75,000, October 2017
Darryl Wallace: $58,000, November 2017
Emily Evans: $380,000, November 2017