Following the suicide of an inmate last month, the Broward County Public Defender has renewed calls for federal intervention in mental health protocols at Broward County jails, which are run by the sheriff’s office.
In a letter sent to Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, public defender Gordon Weekes highlighted the April 14 suicide at a Broward jail and listed protocols he wants to see implemented in jails.
During a recent visit to the Broward County Main Jail, WLRN News witnessed some of these protocols – such as regular monitoring and screening of inmates – already being implemented by BSO officials.
The letter is the latest in a series of attempts to get BSO to address its handling of mentally ill inmates as part of maintaining a jail system that serves as the largest mental health facility in the county.
In February, WLRN reported that Weekes had asked federal authorities to intervene in the treatment of mentally ill inmates in the prison system. This month, BSO shared with WLRN a letter from Col. Timothy Irvin, executive director of the Department of Corrections and Community Programs, sent to the U.S. Department of Justice in defense of BSO.
“When viewed in its proper context… I believe you will conclude that an investigation and additional supervision are unwarranted,” the February letter read.
According to a 2024 expert report, the BSO has made “progress… in the provision of mental health care” by housing approximately 1,600 inmates with mental health issues.
The prison system is regularly scrutinized by a mental health expert as part of a consent decree stemming from a decades-old federal lawsuit. According to an inspection report filed in January, Dr. Kathryn Burns wrote that she was “impressed with the commitment and progress” BSO has made in meeting the settlement’s requirements.
These requirements include protocols for screening inmates for mental health issues upon intake, suicide prevention procedures, and inmate access to care.
Burns stated that she had been following the rules since her last BSO visit. “Additionally, one component moved from partial compliance to substantial compliance and four components moved from non-compliance to partial compliance,” her report reads.
Another unannounced inspection in January – conducted by the Florida Model Jail Standard team – found that BSO was also in compliance.
Still, Weekes says the suicide of a 21-year-old man and the suicide attempt of another inmate – both in April – “underscore the urgent need for better mental health care and suicide prevention measures in the correctional facility.”
According to the Clerk of Court, the 21-year-old man, whose name is not being released by WLRN News, has a history of mental health issues and has been booked into mental health court before.
He was arrested again in January when Sunrise police officers caught him “babbling incoherently” after he used a hammer to steal a woman’s travel bag on a city bus. He was later found unfit to proceed and his case was transferred to the court’s mental health division.
In his May letter to the BSO, Weekes reported that the man was in the prison’s Northern Office and was initially placed on suicide watch, but “unfortunately he was removed from suicide watch while he was clearly demonstrating suicidal thoughts.”
By Weekes’ estimate, 24 people have died in Broward prisons over the past four years.
“Federal authorities can provide valuable resources, expertise and oversight to address the systemic problems contributing to the alarming suicide rate in Broward County jails,” Weekes wrote in his May 8 letter.
According to Irvin, Sheriff Gregory Tony has made the issue of treating mental illness among inmates a priority for his administration.
In 2021, Tony established a team dedicated to serving prisoners with serious mental illness in all prisons. According to Irvin’s letter, he also increased the number of deputy corrections officers by participating in crisis intervention training, a program designed to help employees recognize the symptoms of mental illness and use crisis-mitigation skills.
“There are currently 481 CIT-certified deputy detention officers on staff, representing approximately 50% of the sworn staff, and additional training is planned to further increase this number,” he said in his February letter to the Department of Justice.
Personnel issues
One area where BSO identified a problem was staffing, and said the Department of Detention had 170 positions available as of this week. BSO asked the county to increase the Department of Corrections budget by $67 million, bringing the department’s total budget to nearly $385 million. BSO wants the money to finance 1,712 full-time jobs.
The budget BSO has requested from the county for fiscal year 2025 is just over $1 billion, a 37% increase from last year.
The Department of Detention consumes the largest portion of BSO’s regional services budget, nearly 38%, according to county documents.
CLIFF FROMMER / Broward Sheriff’s Office
Tony, speaking earlier this year on WLRN’s The South Florida Roundup, argued that the deaths were not due to a staffing shortage problem. He said prisons are overwhelmed by the huge number of inmates requiring mental health care, which he estimates is almost half of the prison population.
Last week, prison officials estimated the number of inmates with mental health problems at about 1,600, or 47% of the prison population.
BSO officials said that in addition to staff at Wellpath, the prison system’s health care provider, they employ mental health professionals who conduct checkups on inmates.
Irvin’s letter shows that BSO employs mental health professionals in its inmate behavioral services department. This includes “psychologists, mental health specialists, program specialists, and doctoral trainees who provide mental health and program services to people in residential mental health treatment units.”
The sheriff’s office has repeatedly asked county commissioners and other stakeholders to allocate resources for mentally ill inmates – mainly to get them out of jail and into programs that can help them.
“They remained largely silent,” Irving wrote.
BSO opens prison to reporters for the first time
During last week’s tour, journalists were guided for the first time through the detention process a defendant experiences after being arrested.
During the intake process, people showing signs of substance abuse or mental health issues are screened and, if deemed to pose a risk to themselves, placed in separate units for monitoring.
Some may be transferred to the prison system’s north office, where the facility’s “primary mission… is to house and manage mentally ill, infirm and special needs inmates.”
Some prisoners are given a special uniform called a protective gown or anti-suicide gown.
According to BSO staff, detention officers inspect the cells of all inmates every half hour. Minors and people with mental problems are examined more often.
Dr. Andrew Gross, systemwide director of behavioral health at Wellpath, told reporters that all Broward correctional facilities have a mental health coordinator. Inmates placed on suicide watch by mental health specialists at the prison are monitored by video and placed in cells devoid of objects that could be used to harm themselves.
They are also assigned “suicide guardians” who monitor them. Once an individual is removed from suicide watch, they are usually reintroduced into the general prison population. The decision is made by a member of the Wellpath and BSO team.
Some people who need “a higher level of care that cannot be provided in correctional facilities are sent to an appropriate outside medical or mental health care facility,” Irvin wrote.
According to the February letter, about 20 prisoners are under the care of outside mental health centers.
The county allocated $1 million for the program
Deaths are a problem, say county commissioners, which is in the hands of BSO. Still, they hope the newly expanded post-arrest diversion program will be part of the solution.
In January, the county contributed just over $1 million to the Broward Behavioral Health Coalition program. Provides comprehensive care for arrested people with mental problems or substance abuse.
“This money will go towards care coordination and case management, but also towards housing. He will pay for transportation. This will cover a lot of other things we need to keep people out of jail,” said Silvia Quintana, who leads the coalition.
Thanks to the new money, the program can help approximately 200 people.
Part of the money will be used for temporary housing for people covered by the program. Affordable housing is a top issue facing South Floridians and has been a focus of the county commission’s attention. It is one of the cheapest places to live in the country.
Tony was unimpressed with the amount of money the county was putting into keeping mentally ill people out of prison.
“I want to put this into context as to why I am so adamantly opposed to the idea that a million dollars will hurt this case. “We spend $117 million every year focusing on keeping these people in custody and we’re donating $1 million to the project in hopes that it will make a significant difference,” Tony told WLRN News in January.
Tony acknowledges that detention and diversion programs across the country have been successful in keeping people out of jail, but in a county as large as Broward, more resources are needed to prevent arrests in the first place.
“The problem that we face in our jails, particularly in Broward County, but that reverberates across the country and the state, is that we have become a de facto mental health institute here in this county and that continues across will happen, and it will reverberate throughout the United States,” he said.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can get help by calling 988 or visiting Lifeline website.
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