By Nori Leybengrub
The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. — The family of an inmate who died by suicide at the Norfolk City Jail has reached a $950,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit filed in federal court against the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office and former staff, whose actions were found to have led to the inmate’s death.
The lawsuit was filed by Jamie Vinson, the mother of Philemon Vinson, 24, who died by suicide while in custody at the jail in 2022 on a misdemeanor charge.
“Inmate mental health is an important and often overlooked issue,” said Jamie Vinson’s attorney, Randy Singer. “If this case can shine a light on that and create reforms, it won’t bring Philemon back but maybe it can make sure this doesn’t happen to any other family.”
Singer said the Sheriff’s Office is the only defendant he can think of throughout his career that voluntarily made a settlement public and committed to reforms to avoid repeating a tragedy.
During Philemon Vinson’s intake screening, a nurse assistant working in the jail under a contract with a health-care provider noted that he had feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, that there was nothing to look forward to and that he was depressed.
Vinson’s answers during the screening required that he be urgently referred to mental health care or recommended for suicide watch, a statement of facts attached to the settlement says. But the nurse did neither.
A day after he was booked, Vinson’s mental health paperwork was reviewed by the jail’s director of mental health services, Anne Purkerson, and for the next four days she did not see him for a mental health evaluation, said the statement of facts.
After Vinson died, Purkerson “fraudulently wrote a progress note” to make it look as though she had met with him, and “falsely claimed” that he’d told her he wasn’t suicidal in an interview, according to the statement of facts.
Purkerson didn’t meet with Vinson because of the shortage of mental health professionals in the jail at the time, according to the statement of facts. Her position as a mental health professional was one of four in the jail at the time that housed about 750 inmates, a majority of whom experienced mental illness.
Two of the mental health positions staffed by the jail’s former third-party health provider, Wellpath, were vacant at the time, and Perkurson’s colleague employed by the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office was on leave, according to the statement of facts. Purkerson resigned shortly after Vinson’s death. Wellpath declared bankruptcy during the litigation of the lawsuit.
Five days after his mental health screening, surveillance footage attached to the lawsuit showed Vinson preparing to take his own life for over an hour, while the deputy assigned to perform safety rounds in the hallway of his cell passed by several times without peering inside. Hours later Vinson was found unresponsive in his cell when the deputy delivered dinner at 4 p.m.
Jamie Vinson learned about her son’s death when a Norfolk police officer called her late that night. The next day, she learned that he had died by suicide from a Facebook post.
“If not for the lawsuit, to this day I would be walking around with speculation and what was said on social media,” she said.
After Vinson’s passing, she visited the jail and courthouse, and called police and the sheriff’s office asking for answers. “No one ever contacted me or called me back,” she said.
After over three years, Jamie Vinson said, she met with Sheriff Joe Baron last week.
“When I heard about how Ms. Vinson got bounced around like that, I didn’t like what she experienced,” Baron said.
Notifying a person’s family about their death in custody used to be the responsibility of Norfolk police – the agency conducting the death investigation. But the sheriff’s office now requires deputies to accompany police, extend condolences and provide the family with the Sheriff’s phone number.
The hope, Baron said, is that a family has access to timely and accurate information about an inmate.
It’s one of a series of reforms taken on by the Sheriff’s Office, in part a result of the settlement.
Others include staffing registered nurses instead of nurses’ assistants to complete intake screenings of inmates, increasing annual spending on medical and mental health to $9.5 million and raising the number of mental health staff positions in the jail from four to ten – eight of which are currently filled, according to Jamie Bastas, the public information officer. Deputies are required to undergo additional training to highlight the importance of cell checks and be able react in the case of a crisis.
Many of the reforms were already underway when Vinson died, said Norfolk’s undersheriff, Michael O’Toole. He said the office was in the process of terminating their contract with Wellpath and finalizing negotiations with a new provider: Medico.
Suicide is a leading cause of death among inmates, and sheriffs across Hampton Roads have said that handling people with serious mental health issues is among the greatest challenges in running jails.
Over 60% of the Norfolk jail’s 719 inmates experience mental health challenges – 10 or so of which are housed separately and considered to be a danger to themselves or others, said O’Toole.
“Our job isn’t to punish people,” said Baron. “It’s to take care of them until they re-enter society. How they re-enter society is determined by how we treat them.”
Jamie Vinson said her only son was smart and funny, a passionate football player, a father of three and an artist who had ambitions of becoming a tattoo artist.
“I just hope this is a wake up call for people to understand that even though they are inmates they are still people,” she said.
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