The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility. [Andrew Pantazi]

A 24-year-old who was incarcerated at the Duval County jail died on Tuesday evening at a local hospital after experiencing a medical episode, according to a news release from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Isaiah Lazarus Mitchell, 24, was at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility when he “suffered an unknown medical episode.” The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department took Mitchell to the hospital where he died shortly after he arrived, the release said.

The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy and JSO’s Cold Case Unit will investigate Mitchell’s death, which is the process anytime an inmate dies in JSO’s custody.

Mitchell was arrested in November on charges related to drug possession and for allegedly giving a false name to law enforcement, resisting an officer without violence and violation of probation.

He is the fourth person to die in jail custody this year, and the sixth death since NaphCare took over the jail’s medical care in September.

This year, Leroy Beckett, 66, died in February after being taken to the hospital for treatment of multiple ongoing medical issues. Kiara Lapearl Reid also died in February after officers found her “in distress” while doing rounds. In January, 59-year-old Gregory Norton died after being hospitalized for a medical issue.

Fifteen people died in custody of the Duval County jail last year. It was the fourth year in a row JSO saw double-digit deaths at the jail under a private medical provider.

The Tributary previously found that deaths in the Duval County jail tripled after 2017 when the Sheriff’s Office privatized medical care at the facility.

After The Tributary published its findings, JSO severed its $98-million contract with Armor Correctional Health Services, replacing it with a $110-million contract with NaphCare for the next five years.

Nichole Manna is The Tributary’s criminal justice reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@floridatrib.org or on Twitter at @NicholeManna.

Nichole Manna is The Florida Trib's Senior Investigative Reporter. She has been with the organization since 2023 and has covered the criminal justice system for more than a decade.

Nichole has extensively covered conditions at the Duval County jail and in 2024 received first place from the Green Eyeshade Awards in online investigations for her reporting of medical neglect at the facility. That series of stories was recognized with awards at the local, regional and national level. She took home the first place prize for a feature story in a small newsroom from the Online Journalism Awards in 2025 for her series, ‘Cold-Blooded’, which dissected a 1993 death penalty case and questioned whether the defendant received a fair trial.

Prior to joining The Trib, Nichole was an investigative reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas where she was a Livingston Award finalist for a series of stories about a neighborhood with the lowest life expectancy in the state. Her work helped get residents access to free pop-up clinics and they continue to receive help with food disparities.

She is currently working with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network to produce an investigative project.

You can reach her at nichole@floridatrib.org.