S.D. COUNTY’S INCREASE IN JAIL DEATHS BUCKS STATE, NATIONAL TRENDS

Sheriff’s spokesman says federal formula is flawed measure

The number of inmates dying behind bars in jails across the country declined nearly 2 percent between 2015 and 2016, the most recent years examined in a new report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

During the same period in San Diego County, the number of jail deaths increased from 12 to 15 — a 25 percent rise.

The federal government’s latest analysis also shows the national jail mortality rate — the number of deaths expressed in terms of 100,000 inmates using the average daily population in each jail — dropped 2.6 percent between 2015 and 2016.

In San Diego County, the mortality rate increased more than 16 percent over the same two years.

The county has historically experienced a high number of in-custody deaths.

The San Diego County Sheriff ’s Department, which operates seven jails that detain about 5,500 inmates on any given day, said it has been reviewing the latest data to learn from trends

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identified in the report.

“Inmates are a high-risk population on many levels,” Lt. Ricardo Lopez, a department spokesman, said in a statement. “We spend $90 million on the medical/mental health care for the 80,000plus people booked into custody yearly.”

According to the study released this month, 1,071 inmates across the country died in local custody in 2016. That was down from the 1,092 inmates who died in 2015.

Over the same period, the national mortality rate in jails declined from 153 deaths per 100,000 inmates to 149 per 100,000.

In San Diego County, using the same methodology, the mortality rate climbed from 240 deaths to 280 deaths per 100,000 inmates, according to an analysis last year by The San Diego Union-tribune.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has said it rejected the national mortality-rate methodology.

The local department uses a formula that compares local inmate deaths to the number of people booked annually into jails. With that method, San Diego County jails are not outliers, officials have said.

“Using the average daily population method to compare our jail with others does not yield a meaningful measure and is not appropriate for comparisons across diverse counties,” Lopez said.

The federal report includes data from all 50 states but does not compare the individual cities and counties within them.

In California, the statewide number of inmate deaths also declined.

Federal analysts said 134 detainees died in California jails in 2015 and 122 died in 2016, a decline of 8.9 percent. The California jail-mortality rate dropped by just over 10 percent, from 178 to 160 per 100,000 inmates, the report said.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics report includes data produced by local jails between 2000 and 2016, a 16year period in which the number of jail deaths nationwide climbed, from 904 to 1,092 — about 20 percent.

The statistical review, which is generated from data submitted by almost 2,800 jails, also includes detailed information about causes of death, inmate characteristics, time served, type of offense and other data.

Additional findings show that Aids-related deaths dropped sharply in 16 years, from 57 nationwide to 12 in 2016.

At the same time, inmate deaths attributed to homicide increased 50 percent, from 17 deaths in 2000 to 31 in 2016. Homicides went from being nearly 2 percent of all inmate deaths to 3 percent.

Death rates from drug and alcohol abuse more than doubled, from 6 to 15 per 100,000 inmates, between 2000 and 2016.

Suicide rates, on the other hand, remain nearly unchanged, accounting for 32 percent of all inmate fatalities in 2000 and 31.1 percent in 2016.

The review largely confirms the findings in “Dying Behind Bars,” a six-month Union-tribune investigation published in September.

The series of stories, videos and data analysis disclosed that the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for years has recorded the highest in-custody death

rate among California’s largest counties.

The investigation also showed that the total number of jail deaths increased during the 10 years since Bill Gore was appointed sheriff in mid-2009, compared with the prior decade.

Gore and other members of his command staff disputed the findings and noted the department has boosted medical and mental health staffing and spending. They also said they hired multiple consultants to examine jail practices in recent years and have worked to reduce the number of fatalities.

“Our department has taken a comprehensive look at in-custody deaths and is working to make those in our custody as safe as possible,” Lopez said. “Even one death is too many.”

The department also is working to gain accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, Lopez said. The Union-tribune reported in October that, according to its own commander, the department has a long way to go to implement the 139 pages of commission findings and recommendations.

“There are still many NCCHC standards to be met,” Assistant Sheriff Frank Clamser wrote in an August letter to the newspaper.

Days after the “Dying Behind Bars” report was published, county Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Nathan Fletcher requested and received board approval to hire a consultant to examine “best practices” and issue recommendations to Gore to reduce the number of jail deaths.

That report, being conducted by the Community Oriented Correctional Health Services, a nonprofit consultancy in Oakland, is expected to be complete by March 15.

In general, researchers say a one- or two-year data sample does not present a reliable view of how a jail or its commanders are performing. But the information can help point to areas that may be ripe for improvement and show how one agency — or state — stacks up against its peers.

University of Michigan law professor Margo Schlanger, a nationally recognized expert in civil rights and criminal detention, said Gore could use the latest Bureau of Justice Statistics findings to address the high mortality rate in his jails.

“If he could get the underlying data — which is eventually made public, and perhaps could be released sooner to a government agency — he could look for agencies that have managed to get their numbers down for several years in a row,” Schlanger said by email.

“If he really believes that the issue is one of different populations presenting different risks, he could find other jails with populations that have a risk profile similar to San Diego, but better outcomes, and ask them the same thing.”

The Union-tribune series also showed that the county, which is a self-insured municipality, paid almost $8 million in legal claims and judgments to relatives of inmates who died in custody over the decade ending in 2018 — a nearly four-fold increase over the prior 10 years.

More than 80 percent of the deceased inmates had yet to be convicted of the crime for which they were being held, the investigation found.