State review of Mecklenburg jail finds inconsistencies in guard observations

A state review — prompted by a man’s death at the Mecklenburg County jail — shows jail officers followed observation rules immediately before he died, but not the day before.

Bryon Miller, 49, was the sixth person to die in the jail since January 2022.

Another person held in-custody with Miller in the jail previously told The Charlotte Observer jail officers ignored his calls for help after Miller suffered a medical emergency on Jan. 18.

His death sparked a review of the jail by the Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS released its reports from the most recent inspection to the Observer late last week. These investigations are standard procedure and this one found that jail staff missed at least 11 observations the day before Miller’s death. However, there were no violations found in the 10 hours preceding his death.

Jail officials did not respond to questions asking why observation tours were missed.

State investigations show that in all but one of the six deaths from the past year Mecklenburg County jail staff failed to properly observe those in-custody either in the hours preceding their death, or during it, violating state law.

Additionally, inspectors say the jail was out of compliance and did not abide by state observation laws in June and December, according to semi-annual and annual inspection findings.

Inspectors say some of these observation issues can be attributed to a lack of staffing and overcrowding at the jail.

State law requires officers to make observation rounds at least twice an hour with no more than 40 minutes between rounds. In some cases noted in the inspections, officers went more than an hour without conducting their rounds.

In a recent interview with The Charlotte Observer Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden said while sometimes rounds aren’t made as often as the standard set out in state law, staff is always present.

McFadden said in previous interviews with the Observer that sometimes DHHS has found the jail to be out of compliance when jail staff only missed the required checks by a few minutes.

McFadden said in an interview March 1 that some people in-custody are brought into the jail in poor health and may die as a result.

“A lot of these people come in poor health,” McFadden said. “But they’re still being housed here and that’s a sad thing, and then they eventually expire, for whatever reason.”

The DHHS inspection file contains notes from health care providers taken on his arrest date and the date he died. The notes are fully redacted by DHHS because the records contain health information. DHHS lists Miller’s death as “undetermined” and an autopsy is still pending.

What DHHS inspectors found

Miller died around 5:30 a.m. Jan. 18, three days after he was arrested, according to information provided by the sheriff’s office.

Abdou Bah, 35, was being held in the same housing pod as Miller and says he witnessed his death. He says he and others in the jail alerted multiple corrections officers that Miller was having a medical emergency after he began struggling to breathe.

“Nobody helped me, they wouldn’t even come inside,” Bah said.

According to a statement from the sheriff’s office, Miller was found unresponsive at 5:07 a.m. Officers called for medical backup and “promptly started resuscitation efforts.” At 5:24 a.m., Medic and Charlotte Fire arrived and took over. Four minutes later, Miller died.

Previously the sheriff’s office would not say whether guard’s ignored Bah’s cries for help. Officials would not say what ultimately led to staff finding Miller unresponsive, but they found him close to when a guard was making an observation round.

Chief Jail Inspector Chris Wood led the investigation and inspection for DHHS.

He found — based on staff interviews and an electronic observation log — there was only one documented observation on Jan. 17 during seven one-hour time periods. During another hour, neither of the two required checks were logged.

Wood said two other time slots showed a gap of more than 60 minutes between observations. Jail officials disputed this claim and said the gaps were just over 30 minutes each.

Jail officials wrote in a follow-up report sent to Wood that some observation tours take longer than others because guards are addressing the needs of those in-custody giving the illusion that they are out of compliance with state law.

Jail officials were required to submit a plan of correction to fix this deficiency within 60 days of the DHHS report. DHHS accepted the detention center’s plan, which will be verified at the next bi-annual inspection.

This plan of correction is similar to those issued in the past when investigations by state officials showed violations of twice-per-hour observations.

Bryon Miller death in the Mecklenburg jail

Over the past decade, deaths in North Carolina jails have skyrocketed, going from 17 in 2011 to 76 in 2021, according to DHHS data.

Miller lived in Gastonia and was born in Ohio, according to his obituary. He “loved his family, music, sports, and cooking.” He is survived by his parents, two children, and sister.

The Observer has been unable to reach Miller’s family.

“We don’t take it lightly,” McFadden said in a previous interview with the Observer. “It’s very traumatic for us. But we believe that we’re doing an excellent job in producing a great investigation, so the district attorney and SBI can properly go forward and determine the cause of death, including the manner of death.