Council
people in protective custody, men and women.
While no one is suggesting the council is the solution to the problems that have surfaced since mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree was beaten to death 11 months ago — purportedly by three correctional officers now facing murder charges — reform advocates view it as progress.
“We are excited to hear that the jail is beginning to make a real commitment to giving inmates a voice,” said Meg O’Neill, a patients’ rights advocate with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, who works closely with mentally ill inmates.
“If given the proper teeth, the Inmate Advisory Council will be a platform for change in a variety of areas, including increased educational opportunities, more robust mental health services, and concrete solutions to the root issues of incarceration.”
Walter Katz, San Jose’s independent police auditor and former deputy inspector-general of Los Angeles County’s jails, agreed, saying the council has the potential to improve communication between inmates and the jail leadership.
“This is an important step,” Katz said.
But others, including consultant Aaron Zisser, expressed concern that the county Board of Supervisors, which shares control over the jails with Sheriff Laurie Smith, still hasn’t taken the crucial step of hiring an inspector-general to oversee the lockups, as suggested by the blue-ribbon citizens commission the supervisors appointed after Tyree died.
The full board is expected to vote on the issue this fall. Supervisors Joe Simitian and Cindy Chavez are currently studying different approaches to independent oversight, from San Jose’s independent police auditor to Los Angeles County’s more far-reaching inspector-general model.
In the meantime, 42year-old inmate Mykel David Hall suggested the Inmate Advisory Council. Hall said in a phone interview that he got the idea after serving on a state prison advisory council in Calaveras County.
“The way we get real change is putting it on a platform everyone knows about,” said Hall, who is charged with possession of a stolen credit card and drug crimes.
Elmwood’s former commander, Capt. David Sepulveda, helped get Sheriff Laurie Smith to approve the council after Hall approached him with the idea. He said if it goes well at Elmwood, inmates at Main Jail, where Tyree died, may be allowed to form their own council.
Sepulveda said the council makes sense not only because Tyree’s death has triggered a wholesale review of jail policies, but because the jail population also has changed in the past five years, with far more mentally ill inmates.
Also, many inmates who would have been sent to prison — most of which have advisory councils — now serve their sentences in jail after a federal court ordered the state to reduce prison overcrowding.
Currently, the meetings are scheduled for once a quarter, but the inmates have asked to convene more frequently since the jail population turns over so fast. Sepulveda didn’t reject the idea but said the meetings require extra security and the jail wants to see how things work out at Elmwood first.
The council has already been effective, he said. For instance, inmates in the highest-security unit complained they weren’t getting out of their cells for “night yard.” Sepulveda looked into it and found the reason was because the lighting on the sun deck was inadequate, so he had better lighting installed.
But he stressed at the July 15 meeting that the council is not the place to air a single individual’s grievances.
“It is about what is good for the many,” he said, adding that the opportunity to communicate also improves conditions for the staff.
“We will also come to you and ask that you go back to your units and ask your fellow inmates to stop doing things, like taking apart the pingpong table, that deters our reason to make things better.”