State orders Hennepin County jail to reduce inmate numbers amid deaths and inadequate staffing

The state of Minnesota has given the Hennepin County jail eight days to reduce its inmate population by 239 people, saying the jail doesn’t have enough staff on duty and isn’t checking on inmates as often as it should.

Since the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center’s last biennial inspection in September 2022, seven inmates have died either in the jail or after being transported from the jail for treatment. A state inspection found jail staffers weren’t checking on inmates as often as required during each of those deaths, and also had inadequate staffing during the two most recent deaths in August.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections put the jail’s license on conditional status on Oct. 31 for failing to meet minimum legal standards, putting inmates at risk.

The jail was ordered to reduce its jail population to 600 by Thursday, with a maximum of 150 inmates on each floor of City Hall. The detention center consists of two buildings, with over 500 beds on the fourth and fifth floors of Minneapolis City Hall and 330 beds in the nearby Hennepin County Public Safety Facility.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, asked for an extension of that deadline to Dec. 5, because of the large number of other counties that it will need to ship inmates to.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt released a statement Friday saying: “We were surprised and disappointed to receive this order” after working with the DOC for the past several months to address the concerns.

Witt said the county intends to appeal the order administratively and take it to court if necessary, but will work to comply with it in the meantime. Witt said the county has been working to send about 180 people to other jails, and that the average jail count this year has been 761. The county now has 851 people in custody, with 139 in other jails.

The DOC Inspection and Enforcement unit, which inspects and licenses adult correctional facilities and reviews inmates’ deaths, found that during the past two years, Hennepin County jail staff did not conduct well-being checks every 30 minutes; falsely logged checks; did inadequate checks; and failed to check on inmates with special needs more frequently.

Inmates who are possibly suicidal, mentally ill or going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol must be checked more often.

But in the hours before one inmate died after a medical emergency on Dec. 31, 2022, a staffer logged a well-being check in the inmate’s unit, even though they didn’t actually do it, the report says.

And on Feb. 17, 2023, the staff failed to do a well-being check every 30 minutes on the day an inmate died after a suicide attempt.

On Sept. 18, 2023 an inmate with severe withdrawal symptoms died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after the jail failed to put the inmate on more frequent observation. This appears to be 21-year-old Oscar D. Rodriguez-Corona, who died after a medical incident.

On Sept. 26, 2023, staff did 10 well-being checks that were inadequate, and an inmate died that day after a medical emergency. This appears to be Larry Ramone Hill, a 36-year-old Minneapolis man who was found unresponsive.

In another case, an inmate died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being found unresponsive on Aug. 28, 2024 after exhibiting severe withdrawal symptoms. This appears to be the case the Star Tribune reported on, in which a 28-year-old woman was found unresponsive in her cell on Aug. 25 and died three days later.

Video showed 26 well-being checks that day were done too fast, and five checks were done from a hallway behind the cells that don’t allow a good view of inmates. Also, the report said, the 30-minute time frame was violated four times that day.

In City Hall, staffers sometimes use long, narrow hallways that contain plumbing fixtures behind jail cells to check on inmates, but they can’t see the inmate unless the they’re standing directly in front of the window, the report said.

State inspectors found the jail had inadequate staffing during a review of two August 2024 deaths.

While City Hall’s jail should have staffing levels of one staffer for every 25 inmates, with at least nine staff on the fourth floor and eight on the fifth, the jail fell short by a handful of people during the time of the deaths, especially during worker breaks.

During a September inspection, the inspector learned that an inmate had recently died after being transported to a hospital but it hadn’t been reported to the state.

“Violating these rules presents numerous health and safety concerns, especially in the context of the number of deaths and other unusual occurrences that have occurred at Hennepin County,” since 2022, the report says.

Witt pointed to “an opioid crisis and a public health crisis” in the county and a national law enforcement staffing shortage.

“The safety and well-being of all inmates and staff is of the utmost importance to both me personally and to the Sheriff’s Office,” Witt said.

Witt said the jail is trying to increase jail staff by offering overtime pay and recruiting new detention deputies.

The Ramsey County jail temporarily faced similar restrictions last year after the DOC found inadequate staffing caused “imminent risk of life-threatening harm” to those in jail.