Mental health misfires

At left, Zachary Altom’s face when he was arrested on Jan. 2, 2025, by officers with the Ocala Police Department while he appeared to be in psychosis and, at right, his booking photo after allegedly being beaten by Marion County jail detention staff within minutes of being delivered to the jail.

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Posted April 17, 2026 | By Jennifer Hunt, [email protected]

On the night of Jan. 2, 2025, Zachary Altom stood outside a hotel in Ocala staring blankly, unable to respond to police questions.

The 29-year-old U.S. Army veteran had come to the Hilton Garden Inn hoping to rent a room after becoming homeless. Temperatures were expected to drop below freezing that night.

Minutes later, Altom was on the ground in handcuffs, arrested after a confrontation with police.

More than a year later, Altom’s case has come to highlight the challenges faced by people with severe mental illness who enter the criminal justice system, particularly those waiting for treatment while housed in local jails.

Arrest at Ocala hotel

According to police reports and body camera footage reviewed by the “Gazette,” when Ocala Police Department officers responded to a call the night of Jan. 2, 2025, about a suspicious person outside the hotel, they encountered Altom. 

Body camera footage shows Altom staring blankly and appearing disoriented. Officers attempted to speak with him, but he did not respond to questions. When Altom extended his arms and moved toward an officer, the officers tackled him to the ground and placed him in a restraint device.

Altom was arrested on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, depriving an officer of a means of protection and resisting without violence. Court records reviewed by the “Gazette” show Altom had no prior criminal history before the arrest.

The officers are shown on the body camera footage discussing whether Altom should be transported to The Vines Hospital, a psychiatric facility, or to the jail. The footage does not clearly show which officer ultimately made the decision to take him to the Marion County Jail.

The video also shows the officers commenting on Altom being a veteran. They also noted he had been transported by EMS to a hospital the previous day and he still had medical records on his person.

Intake at the jail

After Altom was transported to the Marion County Jail, body camera footage from the OPD officers appears to show Marion County Sheriff’s Office detention deputies striking Altom after he was taken behind the booking area doors.

Altom was wearing a protective helmet when he arrived at the jail. The footage also shows Altom did not sustain any injuries during his interaction with the OPD officers. In his booking photo, however, there are cuts and bruising on Altom’s face.

Written jail reports reviewed by the “Gazette” describe detention deputies using pepper spray and taking Altom to the ground. Audible strikes to a body can be heard on the body camera footage, but the reports do not mention them.

Family describes mental health struggles

Altom’s mother, Belinda Altom, said her son began struggling mentally after his father died in 2016 while Zachary was still serving in the military. She said Zachary had relied on his father for encouragement during military exercises and while coping with anxiety.

Altom also suffered knee injuries from jumping out of helicopters during his service. After leaving the Army, he received disability benefits related to those injuries.

His mother said his mental health continued to decline and he eventually became homeless. At times, she said, he attempted to self-medicate using kratom.

Following an incident in Washington, D.C., Altom was placed under the Baker Act, law that allows involuntary mental health evaluations. Despite those interventions, maintaining consistent treatment proved difficult, his mother said.

Altom was later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, his mother said.

At a court hearing on Altom’s Jan. 2, 2025, arrest, Judge Kissner-Kwatkosky determined he was not competent to proceed with the charges against him and he was transferred to Northeast Florida State Hospital for treatment.

During a telephone conversation with the “Gazette” on April 8, this year, while still at the state hospital, Altom said the treatment he received there had helped him stabilize.

He said he remembered going to the hotel the night of his arrest because he was homeless and was trying to get a room for the night.

His mother said he had stayed at that hotel before. Weather forecasts for that evening indicated temperatures were expected to drop below freezing.

Altom said he did not remember much about the encounter with police at the hotel. However, he said he remembered being struck while in custody at the jail.

Altom told the “Gazette” he hoped to return to some of the routines he once enjoyed.

“I just want to get back to normal things,” Altom said, including going to the gym and being able to drive a car again.

After several months of treatment and medication at the state hospital, doctors determined Altom had regained competency. He was transferred back to the Marion County Jail on April 10.

Medication lapse after return to jail

Altom’s return to the Marion County Jail raised new concerns for his family and attorney.

His mother said that during a phone call on April 12, she could hear her son becoming confused and deteriorating without his medication. Altom’s family and attorney said he had still not received his prescribed psychiatric medications several days after returning to the jail.

The Marion County Jail contracts with the Heart of Florida Health Center, a nonprofit provider responsible for medical and mental health care for inmates. Under the jail’s medical services agreement, psychotropic medications are required to be verified and administered within 72 hours of intake or return to custody.

The “Gazette” asked both the medical provider and the MCSO whether Altom received medication within the timeframe required under the contract. Neither had responded by publication.

Concerned about the risk of Altom losing mental competency again without medication, his public defender, Julia Williamson, began visiting him frequently.

Broader pressures on jail mental health care

Statements previously presented to county officials indicated that roughly 30 inmates in Marion County were awaiting placement in state psychiatric hospitals during the most recent public update. While those inmates wait for beds to open at state facilities, they remain housed in the county jail.

The jail’s medical services agreement outlines minimum staffing levels for health care services inside the facility, including psychiatric providers, licensed mental health counselors and social workers, along with nursing staff responsible for medical and psychiatric care.

The contract requires mental health services to be available seven days a week with psychiatric providers available on call.

The agreement costs taxpayers roughly $14 million annually.

Oversight questions

Until 2024, a registered nurse employed by the sheriff’s office monitored the jail medical provider’s compliance with the contract and Florida Model Jail Standards. That oversight position ended after the nurse’s employment with the sheriff’s office was terminated, and compliance reporting from that role ceased.

The sheriff’s office has indicated that the oversight position was discontinued.

Florida jails are required to comply with the Florida Model Jail Standards, which establish minimum requirements for inmate medical and mental health care, including medication management and treatment for inmates experiencing mental health crises.

The “Gazette” has previously reported concerns about inmate medical care inside the Marion County Jail under the Heart of Florida contract.

Disability Rights Florida has also raised concerns about medical care at the jail.

Earlier reporting documented rising taxpayer spending on inmate medical services, alongside allegations from a nurse auditor who monitored jail compliance with medical standards and reported delays in care and staffing shortages.

Court hearing

Altom’s public defender, Williamson, filed an emergency motion for a bond hearing after learning he had not received medication following his return from the state hospital.

Williamson has practiced law for 30 years, and said maintaining competency can be difficult for inmates with serious mental illness when medication is interrupted. She also noted that mentally ill inmates housed together sometimes have conflicts that lead to additional criminal charges.

During the April 14 hearing, State Attorney William Hodges Jr. asked the court to set additional bond of $5,000 for two charges alleging Altom battered another inmate, before he went to the state hospital while he was initially incarcerated.

Circuit Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky ultimately set bond at $2,000 for each of the two charges that were filed nearly 10 months after Altom’s initial incarceration.

Williamson said cases like Altom’s illustrate broader challenges in how the criminal justice system handles severe mental illness.

“Unless the public has someone in their family afflicted with mental illness, they don’t seem to care about the suffering of the mentally ill through our broken system,” Williamson said.

Family hopes for treatment

Belinda Altom said representatives from the Honor Center, a veterans treatment facility, agreed to receive Altom to their facility and she delivered him there on April 16 .

Altom’s grandmother, with whom he lived for a time after returning from the military, died while he was incarcerated.

His mother said she believes her son needs sustained treatment and support to recover and expressed gratitude to the public defender and all the people who advocated to get Altom out of jail and into a more therapeutic setting.

“Ever since Zachary was a little boy he was always sort of a quiet loner and could never be categorized as violent or aggressive,” she said.

Photos of Altom’s injuries in the jail reflected a scripture tattood on his chest from John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” For Altom and his family, the hope is not only that he receives treatment, but that his experience contributes to a broader conversation about how communities respond when mental illness intersects with the criminal justice system.