'Crisis' at Metro Corrections? ACLU calls for action after 3 deaths within one week

After three people died in Louisville Metro Corrections custody last week, the ACLU of Kentucky and a coalition of local groups say city officials must take immediate action to fix "inhumane" and "untenable" conditions at the jail.

The deaths represent a "crisis," according to the advocates, and candidates for Congress are among those calling for changes to help solve Louisville's issues of jail overcrowding and staffing shortages.

The jail's embattled director will appear alongside the Metro Corrections FOP president before the Metro Council's Public Safety Committee on Wednesday afternoon for a special discussion on the deaths.

“Our question for Mayor Fischer, Corrections officials, Louisville Metro Council and actors in Louisville’s criminal legal system is, what will you do today to address this crisis?” Amber Duke, the ACLU of Kentucky’s deputy director, said at a press conference Monday morning.

The first death occurred Nov. 29 after Kenneth Hall, 59, was found unresponsive in a housing unit, according to the coroner and jail officials. Four days later Rickitta Smith, 34, was also found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the hospital. Then on Saturday, the jail said a 48-year-old woman had died by suicide.

The woman's name was being withheld pending notification of the family, according to Steve Durham, assistant director of the department.

But Metro Corrections Director Dwayne Clark identified the woman Tuesday during the city's Jail Policy Committee meeting as Stephanie Dunbar and said she was involved in a fight with another person locked up at the jail before getting to a different unit.

Clark said the woman then got into a second fight before getting moved to a single-person holding cell, according to WFPL.

"Later, an officer walked past, saw her alive,” Clark reportedly said. “Approximately 20 minutes later, [the officer] passed back through there and saw her hanging herself."

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The causes of death for Hall and Smith are pending, according to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office, though advocates and a FOP union leader suggested Smith died of a drug overdose.

Carla Wallace of Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice said city officials bear responsibility for these deaths by allowing the jail to be overcrowded and understaffed.

“The deaths of the people are on Mayor Fischer’s hands," she said.

In response to the deaths, a spokeswoman for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer acknowledged overcrowding at the jail has been an issue the city has been trying to solve.

“The Mayor and his team are saddened by the tragic inmate deaths that have occurred over the last week, and our thoughts are with their loved ones, as well as the hard-working men and women of LMDC," Deputy Communications Director Jessica Wethington wrote in an email Monday night.

The preliminary review of the first two deaths, she said, show their deaths "may be the result of natural causes."

To decrease the jail population, Wethington said the city has been working to get convicted inmates transferred to prison quicker; is working with the county's attorney office on having less people from other counties held in Jefferson; and is pushing for a salary increase for corrections officers.

Additionally, the Metro Corrections Executive Team met with ACLU representatives to share common concerns about overcrowding and the impact of cash bail, she said.

Duke said the ACLU met for a separate meeting with community organizations, advocates, bail reform groups, attorneys and others Sunday to discuss “untenable” and “inhumane” conditions leading to the deaths.

They are seeking “immediate actions that are needed to prevent any more loss of life in that facility,” Duke said, adding the coalition also wants to ensure the safety of jail staff.

The coalition's next step, Duke said, involved sending a letter later Monday to Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell and Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine demanding their offices immediately "stop requesting bench warrants with cash bonds for anything other than alleged threats to community safety," Duke said.

The letter was also sent to chief judges Annette Karem and Angela McCormick Bisig of the Jefferson District Court and Jefferson Circuit Court, respectively.

The coalition is also asking the county's two top prosecutors to enforce a contract between Metro Corrections and Wellpath, which provides medical services to people in the jail who have substance use disorders.

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"We've heard reports that Wellpath does not have the staffing that they are contractually obligated to have at LMDC and that people are suffering and dying because of that," Duke said.

A spokesman for O'Connell did not respond to an email and phone call Monday seeking comment.

First Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Erwin Roberts told The Courier Journal in an email Monday that Wine's office hadn't yet received the ACLU letter. "We will review the concerns raised in the letter," Roberts said. "Our concern is with public safety for both people inside and outside Louisville Metro Department of Corrections."

Kungu Njuguna, policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky, said many of the people in Louisville’s jail are there for nonviolent, drug-related offenses. Njugana added the two women who died in the last week were Black, a sign of how the jail situation disproportionately impacts people of color along with those who are poor.

"They’re addicts,” Njugana said. “They need treatment, not incarceration."

“And as someone in long-term recovery, I can tell you that the solution to our drug epidemic is not in the cell at Sixth and Liberty,” Njugana added, referring to the jail’s downtown location. "Those places are ill-equipped to serve as drug rehabilitation centers or mental health facilities."

The ACLU and other groups said 15 people experienced drug overdoses in September while in Metro Corrections. That included five women in one day who were taken to the hospital after suspected overdoses.

Daniel Johnson, president of FOP Lodge 77, which represents Louisville's Corrections workers, said the union would like to see 10 staff members covering a floor, but last week, the fourth floor had only two officers with 450 prisoners.

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The jail was not over its design capacity, though its "in-bed population" has been exceeding its normal level, according to the latest report published by the jail on Nov. 3.

At that time, there were just under 1,500 people incarcerated — the total design capacity of the jail is about 1,800, while the "in-bed population" capacity is 1,353, according to the Metro Corrections "Directors Daily Briefing Report."

Johnson, who also works as a sergeant in the jail, said Metro Corrections has 142 staff vacancies.

He said it "simply doesn't make sense" for department leaders to brush off the deaths as due to a growing number of incarcerated individuals using drugs or having a history of drug use.

In the past two weeks, one officer saved five people who were having health emergencies, Johnson said.

The stressful environment resulted in an officer requiring a hospital visit for treatment, he said, and to help those incarcerated, he said mental health professionals "need to be on hand" at all times.

Inside the jail, "it's very somber" after the three deaths last week, Johnson added. "It's a depressing feeling right now."

Johnson and Clark, whom FOP members gave a "no-confidence" vote in September over jail safety concerns, are scheduled to appear Wednesday at a 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Metro Council Public Safety Committee.

The topic of the special discussion will be the recent jail deaths, according to a meeting agenda.

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Metro Councilman James Peden, R-23rd District, the committee's vice chair, said he and several colleagues had warned that "someone's going to die if we don't fix things."

"Sure enough, here we are," Peden said. "They'll get in here (Wednesday) and blame drugs getting into the building as the problem."

Doing something about the "manpower problem" is key to ensuring jail staff at least have the chance to prevent deaths by noticing and getting to distressed individuals faster, Peden said.

Releasing more people from the jail could contribute to the city's "crime problem," he said, while keeping too many individuals locked up along with a small jail workforce could also hurt. "All of this is just compounding upon itself," Peden said.

Judi Jennings, a coordinator with Louisville Family Justice Advocates, which supports those with incarcerated loved ones, said the Louisville Metro Criminal Justice Commission and the city’s Jail Policy Committee also need to take responsibility.

Jennings said she and others at the ACLU press conference understand Metro Corrections cannot control whom police arrest.

"But they are responsible for the health and well-being of everyone in that jail,” Jennings said. “And they have failed, and we need to hold them accountable.”

Two Louisville Democrats who are running for Congress were among those also speaking out this week about the jail deaths.

Former state Rep. Charles Booker, who is seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Rand Paul in 2022, sent a letter Monday to Fischer to "urge" the mayor to "take immediate action to end cash bail and stop arrests for low-level, nonviolent crimes to ensure more avoidable tragedies like these do not continue to happen."

And state Rep. Attica Scott, who is running to take over the seat U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth is vacating next year, said "we are in a state of emergency."

"I spent the night in this facility when my daughter, Ashanti, and I were falsely charged with rioting," Scott said Tuesday in a statement, referring to her arrest last year during protests over Breonna Taylor's death. "It’s obvious that mass incarceration is not sustainable. If someone is incarcerated, they should expect to be treated with humanity in a safe environment.

"We know who this affects most: the overpoliced Black, brown and working class communities of Louisville. It is entirely unacceptable. Our city’s administration must act now to ensure that when a loved one is incarcerated, we can expect that they will return home."

Duke, with the ACLU, said she believes the deaths of three people in Metro Corrections custody within one week are "unprecedented" for Louisville.

"It's horrific that families, folks who are our neighbors (and) our coworkers are going to be receiving calls while we're in the holiday season (saying) that their loved one died while in custody of government officials," Duke said.

"So if this is not a time that folks are not sitting up and paying attention, I'm not sure what will get their attention."

This story has been updated, including to reflect how jail officials believe the death of Smith, not Hall, may have been caused by drug use.

Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 3 deaths at Louisville Metro Corrections show crisis, ACLU says