LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With six inmates dead in less than three months, Louisville Metro Council is taking a step towards ousting the director of the city's jail with a "no confidence" vote passing a committee on Wednesday.
When it comes to pushing a vote of "no confidence" in the leaders of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, the Public Safety Committee of Louisville Metro Government is forcing its hand.
When passing the vote, committee members discussed the issues the jail faces, including six in-custody deaths since November, a staffing shortage and the jail's inability to recruit and retain staff.
“We have (a) jail that’s in crisis right now,” Metro Council President David James, D-6, said during Wednesday’s Public Safety Committee meeting. “I blame a lot of that on leadership that under-performs on a regular basis.”
A resolution co-sponsored by councilmembers James, Amy Holton Stewart, D-25, and Mark Fox, D-13, shows members detailing a lack of confidence in the jail’s director, Dwayne Clark, and his executive staff.
Councilperson Paula McCraney, D-7, said Metro Council isn’t tasked with managing city leaders, but it has come to this point, suggesting Clark is the face of the mayhem within the jail's walls.
“Unfortunately, you’re going to take the fall for this, but that’s what happens when you take jobs at an executive level,” McCraney said.
Additionally, the president of the union representing Louisville Metro Corrections officers echoed the issues he’s been seeing for months: Upping pay, forced overtime, an overcrowded jail, outdated equipment and failure to keep lifesaving tools up to date.
Of the six inmates who have died in the jail in the past three months, half of them died by suicide. In a report obtained by WDRB News about the latest death written by an on-duty sergeant said an officer found an inmate with a sheet around his neck. Corrections officers tried to remove the sheet, but the blade used to cut the sheet from his neck was dull. It took Corrections officers at least two minutes to cut the sheet with the blade.
“There’s just been a lot of decisions that I question,” said Daniel Johnson, president of Louisville Corrections FOP Lodge 77. “His leadership abilities or his decision-making abilities when it comes to the health and safety of the officers and the people that is in his care."
Last year, union members passed their own no confidence resolution. A month ago, the group agreed on a new contract deal bumping starting pay for Corrections officers.
The agreement increased their starting salary to $44,346 and gave sworn officers an 8% raise, as well as $2,000 retention bonuses and $5,000 of premium pay.
Metro Council members received a letter hours before Wednesday's meeting from Mayor Greg Fischer’s Chief of Public Services, Matt Golden, asking committee members to not push for Clark to be fired.
“I want to see change and if that change is to remove Mr. Clark, we need to do that immediately,” said McCraney. “But if it is to admit to your failures as his supervisors and say that we will see change immediately, then I’m for that as well.”
All in favor of the resolution want Clark replaced, while some are hoping for accountability.
Metro Council will take a final vote of "no confidence" during a meeting next Thursday, Feb. 17, at City Hall.
Related Stories:
- Judge calls recent deaths at Metro Corrections 'symptoms of consistent failures'
- Half of Metro Corrections inmates who died in the past 3 months died by suicide
- Sixth inmate dies at Louisville Metro Corrections in 3 months
- Metro council members call for 'no confidence' vote in Louisville jail leadership
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