Sacramento County is isolating too many jail inmates in small cells for prolonged periods of time, sometimes for 24 hours a day, and may be headed for a class-action lawsuit.
That’s the substance and threat of a scathing review, first released in August, by two groups that examined the treatment of inmates at the main jail downtown and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, both of which are operated by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
Attorneys with Disability Rights California and the Prison Law Office conducted tours of the facilities in April. Together, the two jails hold about 4,300 people, including pretrial defendants and federal immigration detainees awaiting deportation proceedings.
PLO staff attorney Kelly Knapp says attorneys weren’t provided access to immigration detainees, but found widespread abuse and neglect, like inmates being confined in small cells for 22 to 24 hours a day, and sometimes crammed two to a cell designed for one. “We saw these issues applied systemwide,” she said, adding that the issues were consistent with many jails around the state.
According to the resulting 33-page report, inmates with mental-health disabilities weren’t exempted, either, and the “harsh conditions” may have “resulted in two recent deaths,” DRC says in a release.
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