‘It’s shocking to us;’ Montgomery County Jails seeing ‘troubling’ number of inmate deaths

DAYTON — Five people have died while at the Montgomery County Jail this year in what jail staff is calling a “troubling” trend.

In the last five years, there’s never been more than five people that died at the jail or after being taken from the jail, but already this year it has happened five times.

“It’s shocking to us and very concerning,” Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Matt Haines, jail commander, said.

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While Haines agreed to talk about the concerning numbers they’re seeing, he was unable to talk about individual cases.

“In all of these cases, there are ongoing investigations and, to be honest, these things often become litigious,” he said.

Aaron Dixon, 52, died Jan. 13 after being taken from the jail to the hospital to treat an injury sustained in a fall. The Sheriff’s Office previously told News Center 7 that he was returned to the jail after being treated and discharged. When correctional staff went to grab him for a follow-up with jail medical staff, they found him unresponsive.

Later that month, 54-year-old Steven Blackshear died at the jail.

In February, 41-year-old Amber Goonan died after being taken to the hospital. Less than a month later, on March 16, Isaiah Trammell, 19, died after also being taken from the jail to the hospital.

Most recently, 44-year-old Amanda Campbell, of Vandalia, died April 4 at the jail.

Autopsy reports are not complete for Campbell and Trammell, but coroner’s investigation found that Dixon, Blackshear and Goonan all died from various forms of drug intoxication.

“We are not sure if they used drugs in jail or are suffering from impacts of drugs they took hours or days ago,” Haines said.

Haines said that the Montgomery County Jail is one of the few jails in Ohio to recently install an expensive body scanner to help keep drugs out of the facility, but people can find ways around this. He also said new designer drugs are deadlier than ever.

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“It’s troubling,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The Sheriff’s Special Investigation Unit does a death investigation each time to make sure there are no criminal elements to each death.

News Center 7′s Mike Campbell asked Haines if he understood that some in the community hear this news and may think that corrections officers and medical staff are failing.

“If we find someone not doing what they are supposed to be doing, we’ll take steps, take corrective action. They’re not going to be employed here,” Haines responded.

Haines said that outside of the inmates’ families, no one is more upset about what is happening than the people that work at the jail and they will work to turn this troubling trend around.

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