Louisville needs new jail to help prevent deaths, investigator says

An investigator told Louisville Metro Council members on Wednesday the city needs a new jail, blaming its design in part for a string of deaths at the downtown facility.

The jail is "woefully inadequate" and too old, David Beyer told members of the council's Government Oversight, Audit and Appointments Committee. He said most of the deaths could have been prevented by a "direct supervision jail design," which would improve officers' oversight of cells.

Beyer, a former FBI agent and attorney, was on hand to summarize his 300-page report into the conditions and operations of the jail. He was hired to do so after Metro Council approved the move last year.

Beyer didn't share a cost estimate Wednesday for a new jail. But in 2015, the city commissioned an outside firm to assess jail staffing and its three buildings: the main jail, the Hall of Justice across Sixth Street at Jefferson, and the now-closed Community Corrections Center on Chestnut Street.

The report’s authors recommended a half-dozen options, with the most expensive ― replacing all three existing facilities with a new, 2,235-bed jail ― estimated to cost more than $350 million (equal to about $430 million today).

From the start of 2021 through this past January, 14 people died in Metro Corrections custody, with the causes of death including suicide, overdoses and medical complications. The city, Metro Corrections and jail staff have been named in numerous lawsuits filed over the deaths and conditions inside the facility, with several internal investigations into the fatalities still pending.

Free calls, Caribbean cruises:Inside the bid for Louisville jail's new phone deal

In comparison, seven people died in Louisville's jail from 2016 to 2020.

Beyer said he interviewed more than 60 people, including current and former executive staff and officers, other jail administrators around the country and male and female inmates; made five visits to the downtown jail; and visited the Training Academy and Oldham County's jail. He also reviewed reports from nine of the recent deaths.

Besides the jail, primary findings from his report include:

• "Prior leadership shortcomings." Beyer noted past leaders "were up against COVID and civil disobedience in downtown Louisville. Nevertheless, good leadership can overcome that."

• "Two instances of cameras recording use of drugs or stumbling." Beyer said two people who died in the jail since 2021 had been captured on camera footage using drugs or appearing to stumble from the effects of drug use, but a staffing shortage meant officers did not see these things right away.

• "Many instances of failure to perform required observation checks." Beyer pointed to at least five of the recent deaths while mentioning this issue.

• "Poor and inconsistent logs." Beyer said he found evidence officers would not sign observation sheets in a timely fashion or would falsify entries. Better technology that other jails have implemented could help Metro Corrections with this issue, he said.

• "Inadequate staffing."

• "Failure to adhere to basic security protocol."

“So much of what I’m seeing ... is the leadership was either bogged down with daily minutiae or lacked the vision to look forward to what needed to be done and seize upon the technology that was readily available," Beyer told the committee.

The jail, at South Liberty and Sixth streets, was originally built to house Metropolitan Sewer District offices but was repurposed for use as a jail in 2000.

The design ― with dorms that extend down corridors ― does not allow officers to directly supervise prisoners; an officer standing outside one dorm cannot see what’s happening in the other dorms.

Staff also are responsible for monitoring 100 to 120 cameras in each control room, but Beyer said the employees couldn't even tell him how many they were supposed to watch.

From 2005 to 2020, Beyer said, Louisville's jail saw either one or no suicides during most years before that number jumped beginning in 2021.

Beyer said Oldham County's jail had no overdoses or suicides in 20 years, Lexington's jail had three overdoses in 23 years and the jail in Washoe County, Nevada, which has a similar capacity to Louisville's, had no overdoses in five years. Beyer said Louisville currently has about 1,400 people held in Metro Corrections.

But while the "past administration" told him the problems in Louisville were "happening everywhere," Beyer said "the fact is, it wasn't happening everywhere."

"That's a defeatist attitude," he said.

If Metro Corrections fails to improve, then Beyer warned the city could face additional lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights investigation. (The DOJ has already come to Louisville to investigate the city's police department and treatment of people with serious mental illness.)

Beyer acknowledged the long hours that Metro Corrections officers work due to short staffing, and he said the department should boost its recruiting efforts to attract and retain more employees.

He asked every one of the more than 60 people he interviewed if sexual harassment was a problem in Metro Corrections. Beyer said none replied, "No, it's not a problem."

But Beyer said many described the harassment as "just friendly banter."

"There is a culture that (needs) a paradigm shift," Beyer said.

Metro Corrections Director Jerry Collins, who took over in April, has said he is focused on stopping deadly drugs from entering the jail and better supporting the mental and physical wellness of both the people who are incarcerated and Corrections officers.

Beyer praised Collins as "a great new leader for the organization.”

Opinion:Louisville cannot justify fast-tracking a $300 million dollar shiny new jail

Before leaving office at the end of 2022, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer had hired a former Boise, Idaho, sheriff, Gary Raney, to also examine jail suicides and the jail’s “policies, procedures, practices, training and equipment.” Last fall, Raney released the review that found myriad issues, including that staff safety practices are "often absent at the jail."

Fischer, whom Mayor Craig Greenberg succeeded this year, also had directed the jail's medical and mental health services provider, Wellpath, to re-evaluate its practices and hired a firm to review its clinical encounters with people held at the jail.

A coalition of advocates have repeatedly held vigils to protest the string of deaths and called on Metro Corrections to cancel its multimillion-dollar contract with Nashville-based Wellpath.

Collins and other leaders have also supported the yearslong call to construct a new jail in Louisville, but some community members have called instead for better physical, emotional and mental health care for those held inside the current facility.

Krista Johnson and former investigative reporter Jonathan Bullington contributed to this story.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: David Beyer Louisville Metro Corrections report dings past leadership