LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Authorities have identified the cause of death for an inmate at Louisville Metro Corrections who died after he was found unresponsive in a housing unit last month.
According to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office, 37-year-old David Dahms, of Louisville, died of a drug overdose.
A corrections officer found Dahms unresponsive at about 8 a.m. Sunday, May 16, according to Metro Corrections Assistant Director Steve Durham.
The corrections officer "immediately summoned medical personnel who then started lifesaving efforts" on Dahms, Durham said. He was taken to University of Louisville Hospital, where Durham said he was pronounced dead around 3 p.m.
"The Louisville Metro Police's Public Integrity Unit is investigating, a standard procedure for any serious event in the detention facility," Durham said in a statement.
Dahms was booked into Metro Corrections on the previous Friday on charges of strangulation and unlawful imprisonment, according to jail officials.
Metro Corrections Director Dwayne Clark has asked Louisville Metro Department of Corrections Professional Standards "to begin their review of the case including compliance of Departmental policy for periodic observation and welfare checks of inmates."
The jail and mayor's offices declined to comment on the inmate's death. However, the Metro Corrections FOP Lodge 77 leaders said this is a situation their members worry about, because of short staffing and other conditions inside the jail.
"We are bleeding staff, and we're already running dangerously short," union spokesperson Tracy Dotson said. "The vacancies and the forced overtime is really affecting, both mentally and physically, our staff's ability to handle situations like that."
The union has voiced concerns to the mayor's office and Metro Council about the jail being short-staffed, which regularly forces officers to work overtime on short notice. The union also filed a recent grievance over the lack of training.
"We have asked for our annual in-service training, which we did not have last year," Dotson said. "We need that training, and it should've started months ago."
That in-service training covers skills like CPR and first aid. The grievance states hundreds of officers' certifications have expired now, and there is no training scheduled for the near future.
Dotson said it is not unusual for one officer to be in charge of 200 inmates at a time, which he said impacts officer morale and makes it difficult for them to do their jobs well and in a safe manner.
"You're not going to be able to adequately respond," he said. "If my brother or your mother is locked up, if your loved on is locked up in our jail, there's going to be times where perhaps we're not adequately staffed to be able to handle the emergencies we need to handle. From a staffing standpoint as well as a training standpoint. That's a huge problem to the FOP. And that should be a huge problem for the community."
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