By Adam Ferrise
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County is set to finalize a settlement to a five-year-old lawsuit in which more than a dozen former inmates accused officials of running a jail with deplorable conditions that violated their civil rights.
Cuyahoga County officials agreed to pay $175,000 to settle the lawsuit and agreed to make policy and procedural changes as part of the agreement.
County Council is set to vote Tuesday on whether or not to approve the settlement.
Part of the litigation included an expert report on jail conditions and recommended changes. The inspection was performed by an independent expert chosen by both the county and inmates’ attorneys from the law firm of Friedman, Gilbert and Gerhardstein, which filed the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver signed off last week on redactions that must be made before the report is released to the public or used in other lawsuits. That report has not yet been released.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 amid a crisis at the jail after former Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and his staff cut basic costs for inmates while taking on a crush of new inmates from Cleveland and surrounding cities in the hopes of generating millions of dollars in revenue.
The jail was understaffed with low-paid officers, and conditions quickly deteriorated. Ten inmates died in nine months by suicide, drug overdoses or untreated medical issues.
The deaths and a monthslong investigation by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that exposed the county’s plan to make money off the jail prompted a U.S. Marshals Service investigation that found widespread civil rights abuses and “inhumane” conditions.
At the time, federal officials called it the worst jail in America. The marshals service pulled inmates in its care out of the jail and have not returned them.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost launched a criminal investigation that netted convictions of jail guards who beat inmates or helped peddle drugs in the lockup. The warden at the time, Eric Ivey and the jail director, Ken Mills, were also convicted of felonies, though Mills’ conviction was overturned. He’s awaiting a new trial date.
The crisis also led to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ordering widespread changes to the way the state oversees local jails. He also demanded inspections that were ultimately derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 30 other lawsuits were filed on behalf of inmates who were abused in the jail. So far, 23 have settled for a total of more than $8 million.
One inmate who accused jail officers of abusing him and failing to get him medical treatment, leading to his fingers being amputated, also settled his lawsuit, according to county records.
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