Orange County tackles jail improvements amid ICE concerns

The Mayor's Orange County Jail Oversight Commission approved 31 recommendations Monday afternoon as it completed five months of work.

Those recommendations now go to the County Commission for approval and implementation.

And though the impact on the jail of local involvement in the federal immigration crackdown was not on the agenda, it was still a focus of conversation and public comment.

'Sucked up into the vortex'

Between Jan. 1 and June 10, the jail housed about 1,500 detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Orange County Chief of Corrections Louis A. Quiñones Jr. said. That includes 622 who had no criminal charges.

They're generally held for one or two days.

Joe Byrnes

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Central Florida Public Media

Amid allegations that immigrants are disappearing after they enter the jail, Quiñones emphasized that they are given the opportunity to make a telephone call and said that "Know Your Rights" posters are displayed in the booking area.

"So not only do they call their family members, but they can let them know what the process is," he said.

But once they are being held for ICE -- and not on local charges -- their names are not publicly listed by the jail. Family members, when they call, are referred to an ICE webpage.

Orange county, like others throughout Florida, has an agreement to work with ICE. It also has an Intergovernmental Service Agreement -- or IGSA -- to house ICE detainees.

Most Florida jails are run by sheriffs, who are unified in their support of immigration enforcement, Mayor Jerry Demings said. "The handful of those remaining jails that are run by the counties. We've kind of been sucked up into the vortex of this willingness to cooperate at all extent possible."

The county is receiving only $88 a day to house people for ICE, though its per diem cost is $145.

"There have been some ongoing discussions with the federal authorities about the reimbursement rate that we will receive for housing the federal inmates, to include those on ice detainers. Those conversations have continued,” Deming said.

He said the county is being asked to update its memorandum of understanding with ICE and he'll bring that issue before the County Commission. Demings wouldn't say what the new ICE agreement requires. Quiñones said it involves transportation.

31 recommendations

The 25-member commission looked to update recommendations from a 2001 report that addressed a soaring jail population. The numbers have decreased since then, even as the county's population has grown.

But between 2021 and 2024, county officials say the number of jail bookings ticked up 17 percent. The average daily population at the jail rose 31% -- though it's still well below the 2001 numbers.

The commission's recommendations focused on three areas: the recruitment and retention of corrections officers; reducing the jail population; and mental health, substance abuse and other medical issues, including those tied to homelessness,

Recruiting and retaining

Eleven recommendations, including educational opportunities and overnight childcare, focus on ways to recruit and keep corrections officers. When this review started, the jail had a 26% vacancy rate.

And commission member Scott Lynch, director of security at Full Sail University, said about 50% of recruits wash out in the academy.

"Let's set them up for success," he said, "instead of just kind of putting them there and saying, call us if you need us. Let's establish, or look at the possibility of establishing, a mentoring or a tutor type program."

Here are those recommendations:

• Periodically evaluate correctional officers’ wages in order to remain competitive with other corrections and law enforcement agencies.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the referral program and sign-on bonus.
• Review the effectiveness of other agencies’ longevity bonus in retaining veteran staff.
• Evaluate opportunities to create a recruitment monitoring program that pairs a mentor/tutor with a corrections academy recruit to increase successful certifications of new officers.
• Evaluate opportunities to provide leadership training, and advanced educational opportunities for correctional officers.
• Explore opportunities to increase the amount of the tuition reimbursement program.
• Explore opportunities to expand the current recruitment team.
• Update the Department’s recruitment video showcasing the many specialty positions within Corrections.
• Explore opportunities to incentivize the Department’s wellness program.
• Explore the possibility of partnering with private childcare facilities for opportunities to provide overnight childcare.
• Continually study and evaluate recruitment and retention strategies of other Corrections and law enforcement agencies.

Keeping the numbers down

There are 12 recommendations that could reduce the jail population, like improving communication with attorneys and finding a possible new use for the Work Release Center.

Here are those recommendations:

• Encourage the judiciary, attorneys, and public defenders to attend and complete Crisis Response and Management Training (formerly known as CIT).
• Evaluate additional inmate vocational training programs that are specific to in-demand jobs in Florida.
• Consider hosting a Central Florida Summit aimed at educating stakeholders on the 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP).
• Encourage the judiciary to hear motions to compel release (33-day motion) be held on weekends and holidays.
• Explore communication modalities that minimize delays for attorneys entering the jail to facilitate meetings with inmate clients. This may include technologies to assist with inmate movement.
• Explore cost effective technologies to expedite communication between attorneys and OCCD (e.g. attorney phone helpline).
• Encourage judges to resolve technical violations of probation (VOP) as promptly as possible.
• Continue to monitor inmates detained civilly on writs to ensure timely hearings and prompt releases.
• Explore cost effective methods to provide inmates with the necessary treatment within the jail while awaiting placement in state facilities.
• Encourage law enforcement to utilize Notice to Appear (NTA) and civil citations whenever possible to divert persons from the jail.
• Explore opportunities to facilitate virtual plea hearing options at the Booking and Release Center (BRC).
• Explore cost effective opportunities to repurpose the Work Release Center in a way that is beneficial to the community while relieving pressure on the jail.

Options for the Work Release Center include "temporary mental health housing for inmates awaiting a bed in a DCF (Department of Children and Families) facility" and "to house pretrial inmates with charges that still deem them safe for the community," according to this subcommittee’s report.

A focus on mental health

The subcommittee that looked into medical, mental health and substance abuse issues offered eight recommendations, many of them focus on mental health.

Its report said "a significant portion of costly care is delivered to individuals who suffer from severe persistent mental illness ... and/or homelessness. These individuals are frequently arrested for nonviolent, low-level offenses such as trespassing or ordinance violations — offenses often stemming from their lack of shelter and untreated mental illness."

And the jail has become "a de facto behavioral health facility, absorbing the downstream consequences of systemic gaps in housing and mental health services," according to its report.

Its recommendations would extend mobile crisis units to all 11 municipalities and eliminate treatment barriers for inmates with severe mental illness.

Here are those recommendations:

• Change the current cart medication dispensing method to a fixed site where appropriate. Introduce additional fixed medication dispensing sites (“pill windows”) to reduce the time nurses spend transporting medication carts through the jail multiple times a day.
• Create and approve a formal communication process with the State Attorney and the Public Defender to identify medically high-risk nonviolent inmates and recommend early release when appropriate.
• Work with the Orange County Legislative delegation, Florida Association of Counties and Florida Sheriffs Association to advocate for a change in the Florida Statute 409.9025, which would allow counties to bill Medicaid for inmates enrolled in Medicaid who are hospitalized for 24 hours or more.
• Work with the court system to review and revise procedures to ensure patients enrolled in substance use disorder programs, mental health programs and/or experiencing homelessness are released during daylight hours (8am-5pm).
• Review of county contracted substance abuse treatment facilities’ exclusion criteria.
• The county will convene an appropriate group of stakeholders to establish a plan to eliminate barriers to the effective treatment of inmates experiencing severe mental illnesses.

That plan would follow the procedure in a state law allowing the court to appoint a guardian advocate for the inmate.