By County Supervisor Sue Frost—
A few years ago, Sacramento County was sued regarding confinement conditions in our two jails. Since we recently settled this lawsuit, I want to explain to you in this article why this happened, what this means for the future of our jails, and why I will fight to ensure there is no compromise in public safety within our communities.
Sacramento County is one of multiple counties throughout the state— including Santa Clara, Fresno, and Riverside—that have been targeted with jail lawsuits. The law firms that are suing counties are the same law firms that sued the state over conditions of confinement in state prisons, which directly led to the realignment of state prison inmates to the counties in the form of AB 109 realignment in 2011.
This action left our county jails overpopulated, with inmates serving sentences for crimes more serious, and sentences longer, than the jails were designed to accommodate. All cities in Sacramento County, including Citrus Heights, send people who are arrested to the Sacramento County jails.
In addition to having over-stuffed jails, Sacramento County’s main jail was built before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) were passed, and thus did not meet ADA and HIPAA requirements. There have also been many federal court decisions that set new standards concerning how inmates need to be housed, the amount of out of cell time inmates are required to receive, and the medical, psychiatric, and other services that need to be provided in jails.
The county has been making changes to the jail to become compliant with ADA, but they were not made fast enough to avoid a lawsuit. Other counties faced with the same lawsuit spent years fighting, and were forced to settle. Knowing what it would cost to challenge the lawsuit and fail, the reasonable and prudent solution for Sacramento County taxpayers was to settle out of court.
While the Board of Supervisors has been going through these discussions, anti-jail advocates have been coming to testify that they want the county to incarcerate fewer people and focus instead on jail diversion programs. They consistently refer to jail inmates as “victims” – even though the real victims are the people who had crimes committed against them by the criminals in jail.
As part of this settlement, the county has agreed to improve inmate medical care, mental healthcare, out-of-cell time, ADA compliance issues, suicide prevention, and use of force policies. This will add additional clinic space for medical, dental, and mental healthcare, as well as the increased staff necessary to run these new programs.
All told when fully implemented, the total operating cost associated with the new staff and services will likely exceed $50 million annually, and construction costs will likely exceed $100 million.
As the Board of Supervisors moves forward, trying to absorb this enormous initial and yearly cost, you have my commitment to make public safety my top budgetary priority.
We fail as a community if we cannot keep our streets safe, and I will do everything I can to ensure public safety services are not compromised. Not on my watch.
Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost formerly served as a Citrus Heights councilwoman and currently represents District 4, which includes Citrus Heights. Her next community meeting in Citrus Heights will be held at City Hall on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. She can be contacted at (916) 874-5491, or SupervisorFrost@saccounty.net.
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