[Kern County] Grand jury report highlights major upgrades needed at coroner's division

The Kern County Coroner’s facility desperately needs an update, according to a Kern County grand jury report made public on Feb. 4.

And that’s not really news, it noted in the report. Four previous grand jury reports in the past two decades reached similar conclusions.

“It appears the coroner is functioning in the 21st century with 1970s infrastructure,” the report said, noting the facility is cramped, lacks proper backup power for refrigeration units where bodies are stored, has virtually no building security and an outdated record keeping system.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who is also the county coroner, is well aware of the issues, he said Feb. 4, but has been unable to do much because of the county's financial struggles in recent years.

However, county leaders are working on the issue and have scouted a few locations for a new facility, Youngblood said. He added, however, that it's too soon to announce a time frame for a possible move.

"It’s just important when people die that they’re treated with dignity and we want to provide that service," Youngblood said. 

"There are times when we have to store bodies at different locations because we run out of room," he said. "But we make do the best we can with what we’ve got."

Dawn Ratliff, chief of the coroner's office, said in an email the current facility was built in 1974 and can store approximately 50 bodies in refrigeration. She is requesting storage of up to 200 bodies to accommodate the added caseload the office now has and in the event of a mass fatality.

Ratliff also said security became a recent issue when a man broke into the facility armed with a knife during the overnight shift when only one person was on duty. By the time police arrived and arrested him, the intruder had already rifled through some offices and put items in his backpack.

The grand jury report noted that the county's population increased 47 percent in the 20 years between 1998 and 2018 while the number of deaths reported to the coroner's office went from 2,017 in 1998 to 2,872 in 2018. The number of exams and autopsies performed by the coroner's office has increased 59 percent from 722 to 1,148 in that time period, the report said.

With just two autopsy sinks, only four autopsies can be completed in a work day, the report said.

The coroner's office is required by state law to investigate deaths that resulted from traumatic injury, like falls, traffic accidents, homicides and industrial deaths, and cases where the deceased hadn't seen a doctor in the 20 days prior to death, as well as deaths in prisons and on military installations. 

February 11, 2020

The Record, The Bakersfield Californian

By Stacey Shepard