Negligence, Lack of Training at Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Jail Led to String of Deaths
by Michael Thompson
Ohio’s weak oversight of its jails has left the state nearly powerless to effect change as the Cuyahoga County jail continues to experience a string of largely preventable deaths. The deaths have mostly been caused by natural causes or drug overdoses, but as was apparent in the notes of one state inspector, Cuyahoga County had not prepared staff for life-threatening emergencies. The Marshall Project - Cleveland investigated the jail and reported, “Medical neglect, poor monitoring and botched intake screenings have contributed to at least half the jail’s 20 deaths since 2020.”
Michael Papp was among the jail’s detainees who suffered a preventable death. When he was booked at the jail in July 2024, he told staff he had recently used fentanyl and suffered from severe withdrawals. Had a drug-sniffing dog been available, they might have found the dugs sequestered in his rectum. If they had watched the jail cameras, they would have found him openly using unknown substances. After placing him under psychiatric seclusion rather than closely monitoring him, they missed more chances to save his life, especially when he did not touch the three meals he was given.
Guards walked the pod 50 times looking for signs of life but missed Papp’s dead body. When a guard finally opened the door, Papp’s body was already cold and stiff. That guard went on to check 19 more cells before finally sitting down to a phone and reporting the death. The nurse who responded to the call took one look at the body and walked away in frustration.
Ohio jail administrators are required to report deaths to the state Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Inspectors from the Bureau of Adult Detention then review the case to see if any standards were violated. The state has the ability to sue the jail into compliance but Governor Mike DeWine (R) does not want to do that. In a response to a 2024 USA Today investigation into 220 recent Ohio jail deaths, the governor called such a lawsuit the “nuclear option.” Nor are they able to shut down a jail for non-compliance. Marc Stern, a correctional healthcare expert and former head of Washington’s state prisons, told The Marshall Project, “If all they can do is oversight and there’s no teeth and they can’t close the jail, then it’s [a] pretty, relatively useless system.”
The state had previously found few faults in the Cuyahoga County jail, but that changed with a 2018 report from the U.S. Marshals that documented inhumane conditions in the state’s jails. The report prompted Governor DeWine to triple the number of inspectors from three to nine. He also added a registered nurse to the team and allowed them to perform surprise inspections. Still, it does little more than encourage a jail to act. JoEllen Smith is the communications chief for Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. She told The Marshall Project, “Ultimately, it is the jail’s responsibility to ensure compliance with the standards.”
Jeff Crossman, an attorney and former state lawmaker, and state Senator Nickie Antonio (D), have tried to pitch legislation and sponsor bills that would allow jails to be closed well as establish new standards for opiate withdrawal screening, but those efforts failed. Meanwhile, a 2025 investigation into Papp’s death had state investigators calling staff response “unacceptable” and “disgusting.”
Source: The Marshall Project - Cleveland
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