DOJ blasts sheriff for violating right of mentally ill

Alameda County has for years violated the constitutional and civil rights of people with mental health issues by putting them in jail or its psychiatric facilities without adequately treating them either before or once inside, an investigation by the federal Department of Justice found.

In a scathing 45-page report and letter to the county, the agency said “there is reasonable cause to believe” it and the Sheriff’s Office violated both the U.S. Constitution and the Americans with Disability Act by failing to provide suffi

cient mental health and medical treatment and by unnecessarily locking people up in the county’s psychiatric hospital — sometimes for years.

The news comes just weeks after a person died by suicide at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin — the second suicide death this year.

“Our investigation uncovered evidence of violations that, taken together, result in a system where people with mental health disabilities in Alameda County find themselves unnecessarily cycling in and out of psychiatric institutions and jails because they lack access to proven services that would allow them to recover and participate in community life,” Pamela Karlan of the Department of Justice said in a written statement about the investigation, which covered the period from 2015 to 2019.

Karlan said in the letter although her agency wants to “to resolve this matter through a cooperative approach,” the Attorney General could file a lawsuit against the county to force compliance if deemed necessary.

“The Department of Justice is very selective. The fact they focused on Alameda