Five Alabama jail medical staff indicted in death of mentally ill inmate

Five medical employees at an Alabama jail have been indicted in connection with the death of a mentally ill man who died of hypothermia after being held for two weeks in a concrete cell.

The indictment unsealed Tuesday brings the total number of people charged related to the 2023 death of Tony Mitchell after his incarceration at the Walker County Jail up to 25.

A former jail medical supervisor, a jail health services administrator and three jail licensed practical nurses, are each charged with one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of deprivation of rights, according to the indictment.

During his incarceration, the jail’s medical staff failed to provide Mitchell “with constitutional conditions of confinement” despite the fact that some corrections officers approached the jail’s medical supervisor with concerns about Mitchell’s deteriorating health, the indictment read.

Walker County outsourced the jail’s medical care to QCHC Inc., a company which employed the indicted staff, according to a civil suit filed by Mitchell’s mother. The claims against the Walker County Sheriff’s department employees were settled in July, but the claims against Quality Correctional Health Care and it’s staff remain still pending.

Quality Correctional Health Care is contracted in 10 other jails across the state, according to the indictment from Tuesday. An attorney listed for the company in the civil case didn’t respond to a phone call and an email sent on Tuesday.

Only two people indicted on Tuesday had attorneys listed when the indictments were unsealed. Those two attorneys didn’t respond to an email on Tuesday morning.

An attorney for the Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith declined to comment on Tuesday.

Mitchell’s death on Jan. 26, 2023, put a spotlight on conditions and allegations of abuse at the jail in Jasper, Alabama.

Mitchell, 33, died after being brought from the jail to a hospital emergency room with a body temperature of 72 degrees (22 degrees Celsius).

He had been taken into custody two weeks earlier on Jan. 12 after a relative asked authorities to do a welfare check on him because he appeared to be having a mental breakdown. The Walker County sheriff’s office said Mitchell was arrested after firing a shot at deputies and running into the woods.

Prosecutors wrote in the indictment that for much of his two-week detention Mitchell was held in a concrete cell that serves as the jail’s drunk tank with “no blanket, mattress, or clothing, and was routinely left naked on the bare concrete floor.” He was routinely covered in feces and was not provided with regular opportunities to shower or use a toilet, prosecutors wrote.

The indictment is part of a sweeping probe into Mitchell’s death that has ensnared jail leadership, sheriff’s deputies and jail medical staff. The 25 indictments and plea deals depict a rampant culture of abuse and corruption that went beyond Mitchell’s treatment.

At least one other nurse pleaded guilty in October last year. The plea deal said the nurse “had no interest in providing care to someone he thought was unworthy of it and because he feared job ramifications if he offered care against the perceived ‘prevailing culture.’”

Separate indictments unsealed on Monday charged six employees, including the jail captain and supervisor, with numerous federal deprivation of rights and conspiracy, alleging the officers “unlawfully punish detainees in the jail for the detainees’ perceived misbehavior.”

At least one plea states that, at the time of Mitchell’s death, officers intentionally kept the conditions in the jail “as filthy as possible” to convince county commissioners to increase salaries and jail budget.

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Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.