People who knew Christian Black, a man who died in custody at the Montgomery County Jail in March, and members of the Montgomery County Jail Coalition attended the commission meeting on Tuesday evening in Germantown.
Ben Fisher, a member of the jail coalition, said he feels the community has told its leaders time and time again about their fears with the county jail — but no change has come from it.
“We brought eyewitnesses, broken-hearted mothers, traumatized friends who have testified to the injustice that they have witnessed,” he said. “We have seen no transparency, we have seen no accountability and we have seen no justice.”
The commission‘s meeting came a day after the family of Black, along with their legal team, released surveillance footage that showed the 25-year-old’s brief stay at Montgomery County Jail.
“This isn‘t just about Christian,” said Chiara Black, Christian‘s younger sister. She named her infant son after his uncle. “This is about everyone who has suffered and died inside that jail.”
Black was taken into custody March 23 after reportedly crashing a stolen vehicle on Interstate 70 in Englewood. He was taken to a local hospital and subsequently booked into the jail.
Several attendees referenced Black’s treatment following some kind of crisis — footage shows the man being held down by several corrections officers.
Others questioned how medical staff treated Black after he became unresponsive; they called for Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck to step down. Still others called for the officers involved in his death to be criminally charged.
A Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment about Tuesday’s commission meeting.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office last week said it found the cause of death for Christian Black, 25, of Zanesville, was “mechanical and positional asphyxia” and the manner of his death was homicide. This announcement came a day after Streck said he was placing on leave 10 correctional staff who were involved in restraining Black.
“The lobby of that jail is covered in statements that say your officers are trained to protect the people there, who are going through mental struggles and all other kinds of health struggles,” Dayton resident Melissa Brunn said. “You all have chosen to uphold these systems. You should be upholding them for everybody. This does not stop for someone who committed a crime and is now in jail.”
Montgomery County Jail Coalition co-chair Joel Pruce urged the commission to work with the sheriff’s office to identify long-term solutions to decreasing the number of people incarcerated at the jail. Pruce told the commission that the majority of people housed at the Montgomery County Jail are there on a pre-trial status — they have merely been accused of a crime and have not been sentenced to a jail term.
“The officers responsible for the murder of Christian Black need to be held accountable — they need to be arrested and they need to be indicted,” Pruce said. “And if Sheriff Rob Streck cannot clean up his own house, he needs to resign.”
After every meeting attendee who signed up to speak had their three-minute turn, the commission announced their next meeting date and then called to adjourn Tuesday’s meeting.
This was met with shouting from the crowd — “Say something!” one woman screamed.
In response to cries from the audience, Commissioner Mary McDonald said only: “We hear you.”
Pruce said he was disappointed in the response from the county officials, but the jail coalition and other community members will leave “no stone unturned” until the officers involved in Black’s death are “held accountable.”
“I hope this did move them — not only to feel something, but to act,” he said.
A Dayton Daily News analysis of Ohio jail data for 2023 found that more people died after being put in custody at the Montgomery County jail than at any other jail in Ohio. That year, seven people died after being put in the jail’s custody.
The following year, another inmate died in custody after taking a gun from an officer while receiving care at Kettering Health Dayton.
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