Eastern District of California Blog

Sacramento and Fresno County Jails and COVID-19

Per articles in the Davis Vanguard and Sacramento Bee, Sacramento County Public Defenders filed last week a 400-page pleading asking the California Supreme Court to take action to "order the Sheriff to engage in life-saving measures" to prevent inmates' death from COVID-19.   

The Sacramento News & Review reports that U.C. Davis Medical Center has pulled its psychiatric residents from working at the Main Jail because of correctional officers' failure to wear masks.  

And as bad as things are in the Sacramento jail, it looks worse in the Fresno County jail where over 600 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19.  ABC 30, 7/30/20

 

More Stories on COVID-19 in Sacramento County Jail and Other California Detention Centers

There are now 12 confirmed COVID-19 inmates at the Kern County Lerdo Detention Facility, including three federal inmates.  Following up on yesterday's post, here are a few more stories on COVID-19 in the Sacramento County jail and other California detention centers:

"Lack of Covid-19 testing in California Jails Sets up Perfect Storm' for Outbreak, Experts Warn,"Sacramento Bee, 5/8/20

"Former Sacramento County Inmate Tests Positive for COVID-19 on Day of Her Release," Fox40 News, 5/8/20

"Confirmed COVID-19 Case in Sac Jail; Court Filing Suggests Poor Inmate Conditions, Sickness," Davis Vanguard, 5/8/20

 

No April Fool's Joke: COVID-19's a Danger to Inmates

Public defenders in Sacramento say the danger from coronavirus in the county jails has reached a new level, with a county public defender believed to have tested positive for the disease after visiting a client last week.

“We learned today that a Sacramento County deputy public defender tested positive for COVID,” Federal Defenders Heather Williams and Ben Galloway wrote in a letter Tuesday to U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott. “That attorney did a jail visit last week and spoke with a client using the Jail’s social visiting area.

“This is not business as usual. All releasable federal detainees should be released to shelter-in-place. This should include all non-violent pretrial detainees with a release address, all non-violent probation and supervised release violators, and anyone post-plea and pre-sentencing for a non-violent offense.”

Sacramento Bee, 4/1/20

Sacramento and Fresno County Jails Closed to Social Visits

The Sacramento and Fresno county jails have both now suspended social visits.  

The Daily Beast Profiles Sacramento County Jail and Sheriff Scott Jones

The May 25 Daily Beast has an unflattering piece on Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, calling him the "Mini-Trump" and "Accused Sexual Harasser."  Here's an excerpt:

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Jailbirds executive producer Rasha Drachkovitch wrote that his company, 44 Blue Productions, is “motivated by stories that focus on redemption and second chances.” But Jones, who has served as Sacramento’s sheriff since 2010, has spent much of his “tough-on-crime” career making sure many inmates don’t have them. A Daily Beast investigation into Jones’ tenure—including an extensive review of public records, legal documents, and news reports (particularly in The Sacramento Bee, which has doggedly covered Jones’ two-decade career)—paints the portrait of an aggressively anti-immigrant, pro-death penalty official who has not only racked up a sexual-harassment allegation (he denies it), financial ties to an SPLC-monitored “hate group,” and a staggering series of lawsuits from criminal justice non-profits, but has staked his entire career against granting the very kind of access that Jailbirds purports to provide. 

Dangerous and Worsening Conditions at Sacramento County Jails

This Marshall Project piece entitled, "Who Begs to Go to Prison? California jail inmates," focuses on the terrible and dangerous conditions at the Sacramento County jails.   

EDCA Suit Filed Over Death at Sacramento County Jail

Marshall Miles’ family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the deputies who subdued the Sacramento man inside the county’s jail last October ignored his cries that he could not breathe, suffocated Miles until he lost consciousness then left him to lay face down and alone in his cell before seeking help.

Three days later, on Nov. 1, Miles was pronounced dead at a Sacramento hospital. He was 36.

The hours that led to Miles’ death days after his arrest on vandalism and intoxication charges after a bizarre episode October in the parking lot of a North Highlands gas station are at the heart of the family’s legal action against Sacramento County and Sheriff Scott Jones.

As Miles’ family and their legal counsel gathered at Sacramento County Main Jail on Tuesday for a news conference to detail their claims, the 18-page civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit filed late Monday in Sacramento federal court brought the allegations into focus: a “course of conduct” by law enforcement that led to Miles’ sudden death.

Sac Bee, 5/21/19

Lawsuit Seeks To Halt "Inhumane" Solitary Confinement at Sacramento County Jails

Sacramento Bee, 2/14/18:

Attorneys this week asked a judge to halt “inhumane” solitary confinement rules in Sacramento County’s jails, saying conditions have not improved at the facilities despite officials’ own acknowledgment of the crisis.

There is no need to wait for a trial in a lawsuit filed seven months ago, attorneys said Tuesday, because even Sacramento County’s own expert witnesses have said the county needs to improve how it handles people in jail who have a serious mental illness.

Since “the facts are not in dispute,” attorneys representing inmates in the county’s jails asked the judge to order officials create a remedial plan of correction.

“This harm is too serious and too urgent to wait for the normal course of business,” said Margot Mendelson, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, in an interview with The Sacramento Bee.

The Prison Law Office and Disability Rights California in July filed the federal lawsuit over jail conditions. But discussions have gone on for years with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jails, and elected officials have balked at settlement options and costs.

 

Mendelson said the new court filing in U.S. District Court in Sacramento was the most significant development in the case since summer.

 

EDCA Court Grants Class-Action Status in Sacramento County Jail Lawsuit

Just a few days after Christmas, a federal court judge here confirmed the class action status of a massive lawsuit against Sacramento County jails, which will go a long way to ending “dangerous and inhumane” conditions at the facilities, according to a statement from plaintiffs’ lawyers to the Davis Vanguard.The lawsuit, filed July 31 of 2018, charged the long-troubled jails with “unconstitutional and illegal treatment” of about 3,800 men and women. The lawsuit followed a breakdown of a several-year negotiation with the County of Sacramento.

Davis Vanguard, 1/4/19

Advocates Sue Over Dangerous Conditions at Sacramento County Jails

Charging that Sacramento County’s two jails confine inmates in “dangerous, inhumane and degrading conditions,” inmate advocates filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the county seeking wholesale changes in how the jail system is run.

The suit, which seeks class action status for the roughly 3,700 inmates held in the jails each day, follows years of negotiations by the groups and the county to agree to a settlement that would avoid legal action.

“After two and a half years of negotiations, the settlement process broke down,” the suit says, and the groups are seeking relief from the U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

“Defendant regularly subjects people in its custody — the majority of whom have not been convicted of any crime — to harsh, prolonged, and undue isolation,” the lawsuit alleges. “Every day, defendant locks up hundreds of people in solitary confinement in dark, cramped, filthy cells for 23½ hours or more per day.

Sacramento Bee, 7/31/18