Citizen panel whitewashes deaths and pepper-spray abuse in county lockups
June 4, 2014
By
Kelly Davis and Dave Maas
San
Diego CityBeat
The San
Diego County Grand Jury is a body of 19 citizens tasked with investigating
public complaints about government and inspecting the county’s correctional
facilities. But its latest report on the local jail system, filed on May 19, reads
more like a press release than a watchdog report, patting the Sheriff’s and
Probation departments on the back despite serious questions regarding deaths in
custody and the use of pepper spray on juveniles. The report glosses over
concerns raised by detention experts and uses inaccurate numbers to support its
conclusions.
During the
last two years, CityBeat has dug deep into local detention issues. In one series of reports, we revealed that San Diego County
had the highest inmate mortality rate of California’s largest counties, nearly
60 percent higher than the national average. We also covered the controversial use of pepper spray in San Diego jails, which
has been used at levels that, in other jurisdictions, have prompted lawsuits
and U.S. Department of Justice sanctions.
This past
December, in response to our reporting, Sue Quinn—who headed the county’s
Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) between 1995 and 1997 and served
as president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law
Enforcement— filed separate complaints with the Grand Jury, seeking a formal
investigation of the deaths and use of pepper spray.
“Inadequate,
incomplete or cursory inmate death reviews do not identify and address systemic
problems; they increase San Diego County’s potential liability,” Quinn wrote in
one letter, adding, “San Diego County successfully addressed jail deaths in the
1980s and 1990s. It can do so again.”
But,
instead of issuing recommendations, the Grand Jury issued the sheriff a
“commendation” for reducing jail deaths in 2013 despite an uptick in the jail
population, the result of state prison realignment. The commendation was
supported by a chart showing eight deaths in 2013, down from 12 deaths in 2009.
But,
according to public records provided to CityBeat by the Sheriff’s
Department, 12 people died in county jails last year, an increase over 2012’s
eight deaths and the 11 inmates who died in 2010 and also 2011. (The Grand Jury
report wrongly says there were 10 deaths in 2011.)
This isn’t
the first time the Grand Jury got jail-death numbers wrong in its inspection
report. Last year, it reported that four inmates had died between July 1, 2011,
and Aug. 1, 2012. That report was amended after CityBeat submitted
evidence that 11 inmates had died in that period.
Foreman
Gregory Ny didn’t respond to emails from CityBeat, but sometime after
May 22, when CityBeat first contacted the Grand Jury about the
inaccuracy, the numbers in the online report were corrected, although the
written section wasn’t updated and still claims there’s been “a steady decline”
in inmate deaths.
In
addition to the 12 deaths in 2013, CityBeat’s aware of six people who’ve
died in county jails so far this year.
Quinn
asked the Grand Jury to look into whether the Sheriff’s Department and CLERB
were thoroughly reviewing each in-custody death. She received a response from
Ny in late January, telling her that the Grand Jury had determined that
existing oversight was sufficient.
In her
second letter, Quinn said she was “shocked and dismayed” by the San Diego
County Probation Department’s use of oleoresin capsicum (OC, otherwise known as
pepper spray) in juvenile facilities—875 incidents in two years as reported in a story jointly published by CityBeat and The
Crime Report. Almost 15 percent of those incidents were recorded as
unrelated to use in fights.
Although
only 14 states allow for the use of pepper spray on juvenile detainees (and
only five allow guards to carry it on their person), the Grand Jury concluded
that this was the “preferred method” to establish control over a disobedient
juvenile.
The Grand
Jury also declared that it “found no incidents of excessive use of OC, and no
violations of existing policies.”
Documents
obtained by CityBeat show that as recently as 2012, the county was
investigating at least two OC incidents in which authorities suspected staff
violated the policies. U-T San Diego further uncovered a September 2013
document in which the San Diego County Civil Service Commission substantiated
allegations of improper pepperspray use, as well as inappropriate sexual
activity and accessing of personal detainee records by a probation
officer.
