August
6, 2014
The
North Coast Journal
Posted
by Grant Scott-Goforth
The Humboldt County Grand jury is calling for
Sheriff Mike Downey to enact changes to the county jail’s release policies,
including a recommendation to end late-night and early-morning releases.
“The people of Humboldt County would be
better served if Humboldt County Correctional Facility stopped releasing
inmates between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” reads a report released by the jury today.
The Grand jury also suggest that the county
jail may be violating state law by not providing inmates arrested at distant
locations a way to get home, and recommend that cash confiscated during
bookings be returned upon an inmate’s release.
The practice of releasing people from the
jail in the late night and early morning hours came under scrutiny after the
killing of Father Eric Freed on Jan. 1, allegedly at the hands of a man who had
been arrested in Redway on the afternoon of Dec. 31 and released in downtown
Eureka — blocks from where Freed slept — after midnight. The grand jury report
cites three deaths that have occurred in the last year “involving early morning
releases from the jail.”
Downey, citing constitutional concerns (which
he reiterated to the grand jury), explained that the jail holds people arrested
on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol until they are
determined to be sober and not a danger to themselves or others. If sobriety
comes at 3 a.m., that’s when the jail lets them out. The jail also sometimes
releases inmates during late-night/early morning hours when they’ve completed a
sentence.
In May, following a town hall meeting that
was heated at times, the sheriff's office announced a change in policy: they
would offer inmates the option to stay in jail 'til morning, if the inmate
requested it. (Three to five inmates per week asked for such a thing, according
to a sheriff's office press release at the time.)
But in its report released today, the grand
jury determined that Downey’s constitutional concerns weren’t likely to have
actual legal impacts (the Journal noted in the January story “Dead of
Night” that at least six other jails around the state hold people until
daylight hours, without legal challenge). The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that
jails can legally hold people for 48 hours before they must be brought before a
judge. Releasing them prior to that period is discretionary, the grand jury
determined.
“In a situation where the safety of the
community is at issue, the Jury believes that it is extremely unlikely that any
court will hold that the Sheriff is violating the law by deciding that the
exercise of such discretion should not occur between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6
a.m. when the exercise of that discretion can put the community at risk,"
the report states. "The sheriff should order that no decision as to
whether or not ‘no further proceedings are desirable’ will be made between the
hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.”
In addition, the grand jury found that the
Humboldt County jail may be violating California law by not providing transport
for people arrested in the far reaches of the county.
“California Penal Code Section 686.5 mandates
that for an indigent person who is arrested ‘more than 25 airline miles’ from
where he or she is released from custody and who will not be charged, ‘the
arresting agency shall, at his request, return or provide for return of such
person to the place of his arrest.’ Humboldt County Correctional Facility staff
told us they do not routinely follow this policy,” the report reads.
The report suggest that the sheriff’s office
work with the Humboldt Transit Authority to provide bus tickets for released
inmates. “We think that Humboldt Transit Authority would prove amenable to this
procedure. Generally speaking the early morning buses are not crowded and
making bus tickets available would be virtually cost free as the buses will run
in any case.”
If the place of arrest was not accessible by
public transit, the report goes on, the jail must make other arrangements.
Finally, the grand jury recommended that
inmates be given back any cash that they were booked with upon release.
Currently, the jail issues a check for confiscated cash upon release (unless
the inmate was booked for a brief intoxication hold) — a practice the grand
jury called “problematic.”
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