COUNTY NEVER GOT THE STRONG JAIL OVERSIGHT VOTERS WANTED
Ivan Ortiz was 26 when he died in a San Diego jail cell in March 2019. Ortiz had previously attempted suicide twice and was in a specialized mental health unit meant to provide the highest level of observation and treatment.
A deputy who served Ortiz breakfast in his cell left behind a plastic meal bag, a violation of department policy. Left unmonitored for nearly an hour, Ortiz suffocated himself by putting the bag over his head. The county paid his family a $1 million settlement.
Ortiz is one of more than 150 people incarcerated in San Diego jails who have died since 2009. Many of these deaths could have been prevented.
In 2018, I co-authored a Disability Rights California investigation report on San Diego’s jails. We found that the jails put people with mental health disabilities at grave risk by placing them in dangerous solitary confinement conditions, and that there were insufficient staffing and program resources to deliver adequate treatment. For the time period we examined, San Diego jails had more than twice the number of suicides as Los Angeles jails — even though San Diego’s jail population is one-third that of Los Angeles.
In our report, we urged stronger oversight of jail operations, a goal that county voters have long supported. In 1990, San Diego County voters approved the creation of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board. CLERB’s mission was “to increase public confidence in government and the accountability of law enforcement” by investigating complaints against law enforcement and deaths in jail detention.
CLERB has not lived up to its mission. In 2017, faced with a tremendous case backlog, CLERB summarily dismissed 22 investigations of in-custody deaths because it could not complete them by the one-year deadline set by state law. CLERB’s executive officer, Paul Parker, has pledged to prevent such dismissals from occurring again.
But even when CLERB completes investigations, its findings too often come up short.
Take the case of Paul Silva, who was arrested in 2018 for alleged drug use despite his family’s pleas for emergency mental health services. Silva was kept in a brightly lit holding cell for more than 24 hours. Video shows his mental state deteriorating. A tactical team extracted Silva from his cell using a shocking array of force, including pepper spray, water rounds, tasers and closed fist strikes to Silva’s head and upper body. In video of the incident, Silva can be heard telling deputies that he can’t breathe as they pin him down with a riot shield. By the time Silva was placed in handcuffs and leg chains, he had stopped breathing. He died later in the hospital.
CLERB investigators did not watch the video of Silva’s cell extraction. They found “no evidence” of wrongdoing by sheriff ’s deputies. The county, however, agreed earlier this year to settle a lawsuit filed by Silva’s family for $3.5 million.
Effective oversight of San Diego’s jails remains a critical but unrealized need. The federal judge overseeing the Silva case damningly wrote that “although [the county] has established a board to investigate the widely known problem of in-custody deaths, it has also failed to enable the board to carry out its stated responsibilities.”
In the absence of meaningful oversight, jail staff have become whistleblowers. Last year, a jail medical records clerk testified in a civil lawsuit against the Sheriff ’s Department in federal court that she’d confronted a sergeant who had rejected a nurse’s request that Heron Moriarty be placed on suicide watch. The same day, Moriarty, a father of three, choked himself to death with two T-shirts. The records clerk testified that she was threatened with retaliation if she told anyone about the sergeant’s actions. (Moriarty’s case was one of the 22 dismissed by CLERB in 2017.)
Effective jail oversight requires frequent, unannounced site visits, with access to and expert review of relevant custody and health care records. It demands hearing from, and listening to, people with lived experiences being incarcerated.
In its 31 years, CLERB has never inspected jail facilities despite having the authority to do so. CLERB recently received funding to hire three more investigators, bringing its staff up to eight. But it is unclear whether CLERB has the staff, resources and expertise necessary to identify core problems and chart a path forward. Last month, the state auditor authorized an investigation after six local lawmakers and others requested a review of jail deaths and an examination of whether CLERB has enough staff and resources to do its work.
Another significant issue is that CLERB lacks jurisdiction over jail medical services. “Our hands are tied when it comes to painting the whole picture of a case,” Parker said in April. “Without jurisdiction over medical staff, it will continue to be difficult for CLERB to thoroughly investigate deaths and transparently report on deaths,” he said in February.
The county must ensure that independent oversight reaches jail health care services, and the oversight body must have sufficient expertise in these areas.
There are hardworking health services staff and deputies who are committed to ensuring the health and safety of incarcerated people in their care. They should be supported with appropriate resources, training and policies. They should also be held to rigorous standards through independent, robust and transparent oversight.
Fischer is an attorney specializing in civil rights and disability rights and was a lead author of Disability Rights California’s 2018 report on conditions in San Diego jails. He lives in Berkeley.