At the request of the California Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor released its report on San Diego County jails. The evaluation reviewed in-custody deaths at county Sheriff’s jails over the last 15 years, as well as protocol and prevention measures.
The CSA made recommendations in the following areas: Intake Screening, Medical & Mental Health Follow-up, Safety Checks, Sworn Discovery of Medical Emergency, In-Custody Death Follow-up, Critical Incident Review Board, and Citizen’s Law Enforcement Board Integration.
San Diego County Undersheriff Kelly Martinez said she embraced the audit as the department has been concerned on what has happened in its jails and this provided an outsider’s view of the problems the department faces. She said the department was already working on some of the recommendations before the audit was released.
“We recognized that we needed more healthcare and more mental health clinicians, and healthcare services in the jails,” she said. “Last year the [San Diego County] Board of Supervisors approved 187 new healthcare positions in our facilities. We have actively been trying to fill those positions since last year. The entire nation is competing for those types of workers, so we have not been able to hire all the workers we want, however, we have a robust recruiting going on right now and are going to continue to add more incentives to the work here and find new ways to recruit and retain more mental health and medical staff.”
Martinez said until it ran into staff shortages, they had mental health staff at intake, and it is looking at telepsychiatry, as research has shown that it is effective, especially being used during the pandemic, so they are looking at adopting that model at intake.
“That will reduce the number of mental clinicians that we need because if they are virtual, we can plug them into any facility where the need is,” she said. “That would make it available at all of our facilities which we think is important because many that come into our facilities do have mental health issues and may be in a position where they may be suicidal or have other concerns they may have when they come into our custody.”
Martinez said the number of clinicians needed is high because it has begun a pilot program that follows a primary healthcare model which allow them to have a doctor or physician who knows all the needs and health history of intakes.
“It is really helpful. One of the audit recommendations was to understand the individual’s health record from the community when they come into custody so we can make sure that we are treating any preexisting medical conditions that may translate into a risk while they are in custody,” she said. “We are upgrading our wireless system because we have very old jails that do not support some of the technology to connect with community healthcare systems. We are working on that upgrade now and we hope to have that completed by the end of the year.”
Martinez said they are already auditing its safety checks to ensure deputies are doing safety checks as they should be done. She said the difference between safety checks and proof of life is that it is a struggle when people are sleeping, and they do not want to wake people up every hour to make sure that they are still breathing. Eighteen people died in San Diego County jails in 2021.
“There is a lot going on. There is a lot we were doing, and we are taking notice of their recommendations and making sure that we can implement,” she said. “Whatever we can change to make our jails a healthier environment. I appreciate the frankness of this environment, the honesty of the auditors and what their view of our system is. Moving forward, I think that we will be able to get a lot accomplished.”
To view the recommendations from the audit and the audit report, visit https://www.sdsheriff.gov/home/showdocument?id=4707&t=637794787066220116
