Yuba County Jail inmate choked to death in January

A Yuba County Jail inmate who died in January choked to death, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Spokeswoman Leslie Carbah this week said the cause of death for Bertram Hiscock was choking “with the manner of death still pending.”

Carbah said the Sheriff’s Department does “not have a timeline for the completion of the investigation. We will take as much time as necessary to ensure it is a thorough and complete investigation.”

Hiscock, 34, was charged with a Nov. 14 kidnapping and was deemed incompetent to stand trial on Jan. 25.

Shortly after the death, Carbah said Hiscock had been held “in a cell alone.”

Gay Grunfeld, a San Francisco attorney who is pressing a lawsuit about jail conditions on behalf of inmates against the county, said it was “tragic that the Yuba County Jail kept Mr. Hiscock, who was known to be seriously ill and have a history of self-harm, in a rubber room for a prolonged period without sufficient mental health care. The jail must improve its mental health care, reduce its reliance on rubber rooms, and provide for inpatient psychiatric care or more prisoners will suffer or die under similar circumstances.”

The Yuba County Jail “is not safe for the mentally ill, and this young man did not have to die,” she said.

The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

Last month, following two hearings, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman scheduled a May 5 settlement conference.

In his order, Newman said the parties “are instructed to have a principal with full settlement authority present for the settlement conference or to be fully authorized to settle the matter on any terms. The individual with full settlement authority to settle must also have unfettered discretion and authority to change the settlement position of the party, if appropriate.

“The purpose behind requiring attendance of a person with full settlement authority is that the parties view of the case may be altered during the face to face conference.”

The lawsuit was filed in the 1970s and resulted in a consent decree in which the county agreed to improve jail conditions.

The case remained dormant until a few years ago when the county sought to have the consent decree terminated.

A federal judge declined to terminate the decree, sparking a new round of litigation.

On Tuesday night, Yuba County supervisors will discuss the case in closed session, according to their agenda. They also had it on their agenda last Tuesday night for closed session.