The Civil Right Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded its five-year investigation of the Escambia County Jail and its findings are as bad as Sheriff David Morgan tried to warn the Escambia County Commission.
While the report commends Morgan for his efforts to reform the facility, DOJ found the jail woefully understaffed which have made the jail unsafe for prisoners and detention deputies. The report found prisoner-on-prisoner assaults a common occurrence and stated it was caused “primarily because of a shortage of correctional staff.â€
In April, Sheriff Morgan requested nearly 100 more correctional personnel in his 2013-2014 budget. The daily newspaper, Interim County Administrator George Touart and Commission Chairman Gene Valentino blasted the sheriff for doing so. PNJ columnist Shannon Nickinson called Morgan’s budget “outrageous.â€
The DOJ report that was emailed on Tuesday afternoon to Sheriff Morgan and Touart shows that the sheriff’s budget request for the jail may need to be increased, not cut.
The DOJ report supports the March 2011 staffing study commissioned by the county commission, which also recommended more personnel. The report was never released to the public, because county staff refused to pay the final invoice. When Morgan’s budget was released, county staff tried to insinuate that the 2011 data was out-of-date and no longer relevant.
DOJ found those numbers very relevant and demonstrated how the lack of detention and mental health personnel led to unsafe conditions at the jail.
The report also found:
• Jail leadership fails to appropriately monitor and track prisoner-on-prisoner violence and staff-on-prisoner uses of force;
• The “decades-long practice†of segregating black prisoners into black-only housing units was discriminatory and fuels racial tensions;
• Jail does not afford prisoners timely and adequate access to appropriately skilled mental health care professionals;
• Jail fails to provide appropriate medications to mentally ill prisoners;
• Cites statistics that the mental health program at the Jail is inadequate. “The dearth of mental health professionals led to excessive risks to prisoners’ safety.â€
“While the conditions at the Escambia County Jail have improved significantly in recent years, serious problems remain, and we have reasonable cause to believe the Jail continues to routinely violate the constitutional rights of prisoners.â€
To remedy the situation, DOJ states that the jail officials “must take reasonable steps to protect prisoners from physical violence and to provide humane conditions of confinement.â€
Staffing and supervision levels must be adequate to protect prisoners from violence, video surveillance in critical housing units must be increased and prisoner violence must be monitored and tracked.
The mental health program needs to also be improved with better access to skilled mental health professionals and adequate mental health treatment. Better protections against prisoner suicide need to be implemented.
Sheriff Morgan and the Escambia County Commission have 49 days to reach an agreement with the Department of Justice on how it will correct the staffing and other issues at the county jail. Otherwise the Attorney General may initiate a lawsuit.
“We would prefer, however, to resolve all matters by continuing to work cooperatively with you and are confident that we will be able to do so in this case,†wrote the DOJ in the report’s conclusion.
Read the report: ECJ FL (signed pdf) 5 21 2013