SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office agreed with one finding by a grand jury’s review of six detention centers: The main jail lacks equipment to scan inmates for nonmetal contraband.
At the Water Street Maximum Security Jail, inmates are searched, but the Sheriff’s Office is considering alternatives, Undersheriff Jeremy Verinsky said in response Wednesday.
The grand jury report, issued in June, found most detention facilities are aging and crowded.
Blaine Street Women’s Facility, the only detention center that had spare room, remains closed. The Sheriff’s Office is seeking money to convert operations after applying for a grant in February and being turned down.
Grand juries examine special districts, and city and county governments. Findings are designed to improve operations. Jurors toured county detention centers in 2016 and 2017.
EMPTY DORM
The vacant Blaine Street women’s facility, a two-story dormitory, is the result of poor planning, the grand jury reported.
The facility opened in 1984 but has been closed since December for a consistent lack of inmates.
The center is not fully secured, Verinsky said. As a result of recent criminal-justice reforms, the Sheriff’s Office no longer houses “sufficient numbers” of minimum-security inmates, Verinsky said.
The office is reviewing options after it did not receive the grant.
Those options include improving classifications for incarcerated women and upgrading security, Verinsky said. The Sheriff’s Office plans to report findings to Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors in January.
JAIL SECURITY
At the main jail, a maximum-security hold, there have been concerns about the cost to scan for nonmetal contraband, Verinsky said. There also were questions about whether staff would be exposed to radiation and where the equipment would be placed. New technologies will be considered, Verinsky said.
In other findings, the grand jury report questioned whether officers were breaking the rules for inmates placed in protective, padded cells.
Sheriff’s staff must fill out a placement form and a watch commander must approve placements in protective cells, Verinsky said.
The grand jury reported that the Sheriff’s Crisis Intervention Team keeps notes in inmate records but not minutes of meetings or summaries of daily record changes.
The Sheriff’s Office keeps daily general summary notes on high-risk inmates and those notes are forwarded to facility managers, mental health and medical staff, Verinsky said.
Long-term inmates at the main jail may suffer vitamin D deficiencies caused by lack of exposure to sunlight, the grand jury reported.
The Sheriff’s Office disagreed with this finding. Inmate medical lab tests would rule out deficiencies. Inmates go outside longer than health guidelines require, Verinsky said.
PROGRAMMING
Main jail inmates with medical needs cannot reap the services offered at the Rountree Medium Security Facility near Watsonville, the grand jury reported.
Verinsky said inmates have about 100 hours of weekly programming at the main jail. During a visit to the main jail by the Sentinel in April, inmates were packed into two classrooms for religious and academic programs.
“Inmates are eligible to transfer to Rountree when they are medically stable,” Verinsky said.
The grand jury asked for data showing the outcomes of jail programs and proving whether the programs curb repeat offenses. The data was not provided and the grand jury questioned whether the lack of documentation would affect funding.
Program contractors give weekly data reports to the Santa Cruz County Probation Department, which funds AB 109 services, Verinsky said. Outcomes are reported to Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, he said.
November 16, 2017
Santa Cruz Sentinel
By Michael Todd
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